SEL Programs in High School

Abstract

Adolescence is a time of personal and social development that requires a sophisticated repertoire of social-emotional skills for healthy adjustment. Teenagers often face considerable difficulties negotiating the biological, cognitive, and physiological changes associated with puberty (Yurgrlum-Todd, 2007). For example, as advances in neuroscience have shown, there is a marked shift toward reward seeking, while self-regulation skills struggle to keep pace (Steinberg, 2008). As adolescents increasingly interact with peers, they must simultaneously contend with peer pressure. Teenagers also must navigate the vicissitudes of identity development and the search for purpose and meaning as they transition into adulthood (Erikson, 1968, 1993). These developmental and contextual shifts challenge positive youth development and increase normative risk for problem behaviours such as violence, sexual risk taking, substance abuse, and school drop-out (Guerra & Bradshaw, 2008; Steinberg, Vandell, & Bornstein, 2011).