Education and wellbeing
Ways to support the wellbeing of children and young people within education.
Hello and welcome to the latest Compassionate Nature article which takes a look at recent research around mental wellbeing interventions within educational settings and how they contribute to the evidence base.
“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
The words of Aristotle could be taken to mean that alongside learning facts and information, education is also about fostering emotional wellbeing and supporting relationships with others. However the current picture of children’s emotional wellbeing appears to be a concerning one.
A recent report from the N8 Research Partnership, a collective of educational practitioners and academics from several Universities based in the north of England provides a series of recommendations on supporting the wellbeing of children within educational settings. The report notes the prevalence of mental health issues being reported across school-age children, which appears to be increasing, and the challenges many children face with accessing appropriate and timely support. The report highlights that educational settings offer the opportunity to “promote good mental health through mentally healthy school environments and to facilitate intervention with pupils displaying early mental health or behavioural symptoms”. It notes that the provision of wellbeing or social and learning (SEL) interventions in schools may help to protect and/or improve the mental wellbeing of children, while stressing that the interventions should be research based, implemented without placing additional burden on teachers and with the awareness that some pupils may find school-wide interventions challenging or even detrimental to their wellbeing. I thought this paragraph from the report summed up the current position.
“There is good evidence that universal social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions, that improve CYP’s (children and young people) social and emotional knowledge and skills, can reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety at least in the short-term. Having skills such as emotion regulation, friendship skills, decision-making and perspective taking can protect mental health and address other related outcomes such as friendship difficulties. However, there is limited evidence regarding the long-term impact of SEL.”
So there is the potential but limited evidence - what do some recently published psychology studies add? Two review the benefits of formal mindfulness and compassion based interventions, while another has looked at the potential for nature-based activities. Before looking at those, it is perhaps worth considering a paper which looked at a key influence upon mental wellbeing, especially within education.
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It’s got to be perfect
Perfectionism has been linked with having a negative effect upon mental wellbeing and can be defined through two aspects - personal high standards (striving) and focus on performance, especially in relation to mistakes (concern). A 2024 paper by Anna Kuusi and colleagues considered the influence of perfectionism upon academic factors and mental wellbeing of students across 5 schools in Finland. The study assessed the prevalence of perfectionism, how stable this was across a time period and the links with wellbeing. The study sample consisted of 511 pupils aged around 15 years old, 52% of whom were female, across a time period from autumn 2018 to spring 2019. Using measures of perfectionism, academic engagement, academic burnout and mental wellbeing, the authors identified four subtypes based around the dimensions of striving and concern - moderately concerned, perfectionist, ambitious and non-perfectionist. The results found that the largest group at both time points was the moderately concerned (38% and 35%) while the smallest group at both time points was the non-perfectionist (18% and 21%). Nearly a quarter of the pupils were in the perfectionist group (23% at both time points), with a similar number ((21% and 20%) in the ambitious group. The authors define the ambitious group has being adaptive perfectionists, as opposed to the more maladaptive form of perfectionist, so combining the two groups means that in this sample nearly half of the pupils responses were indicative of high perfectionism. The most academically engaged pupils were either in the ambitious group or the perfectionist group. However the perfectionist group also had the highest levels of pupils reporting exhaustion, the greatest sense of inadequacy and the highest self-report levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms. The ambitious and non-perfectionist groups reported lower levels of general anxiety and depression scores. While the results do suggest that for the majority (82%) of pupils their levels of striving and concern remained stable across the period, where there were changes these often had a direct relationship upon wellbeing. For example, moving from the moderately concerned subtype to perfectionist subtype correlated with greater exhaustion. The relationships identified in the study could however be either way, so a reduction in mental wellbeing may have affected levels of striving or concern as much as they influenced wellbeing. As well as not being able to ascertain a causal relationship, the results are limited by the relatively short time period of 6 months and it may have been helpful to have also considered academic achievement. These points aside aside, the study supports other research of both children and adults that show a relationship between levels of maladaptive perfectionism and reduced wellbeing,
Being mindful
Mindfulness programmes have been suggested as a potential intervention within schools to support mental wellbeing and foster SEL skills. One such programme is the Paws b intervention for 7- 11 years old developed by the Mindfulness in Schools Project. While Paws b has featured in studies around mental wellbeing, there has been limited research into its role in supporting SEL, which Katie Crompton and colleagues 2024 paper addresses. Their study was based on ten classes in 2 schools, where some classes had a usual personal, social, health and economic (PHSE) curriculum, while others undertook the Paws b programme within PHSE sessions. The control group of PHSE as usual consisted of 4 classes and 108 pupils, while the Paws b intervention was delivered to 6 classes and 165 pupils. The overall sample of 273 pupils had a mean age of 8 years old and consisted of 52% girls. The sessions were held over the summer term, with the pupils assessed by measures of mindfulness for children and empathy, along with a specific task to determine sharing behaviours. Feedback from both teachers and pupils as a peer group was also taken. The assessments were taken at three time points - start, end and a follow-up of three months - with no significant differences in the groups noted at the start. The study results were mixed, with no differences in the measures nor level of sharing found between the PHSE as usual and Paws b groups. The Paws b programme was perceived as being more helpful by pupils than the standard PHSE lessons and teachers reported greater levels of prosocial behaviours from the classes who undertook the Paws b lessons. There are some limitations to note against these findings. Although the study design is a random control trial, the randomisation of classes had issues and there was a lack of blinding by teachers and researchers to which groups pupils were in, which can introduce bias to the results and interpretations. The study did not assess the acceptance and feasibility of the Paws b programme by pupils and teachers. Overall this study found that a mindfulness programme did not provide additional benefits upon empathy levels and sharing behaviours, although it appeared to support improved helping and relationship behaviours as noted by both teachers and fellow pupils.
Add compassion
The role of compassion upon prosocial behaviours has featured before on Compassionate Nature. Frankie Maratos and University of Derby colleagues 2024 paper has a similar design approach to the Paws b study, this time using a version of Compassionate Mind Training (CMT) exercises developed for pupils, an extension of the CMT for Teachers programme. The study aimed to assess the use and accessibility of the CMT for Pupils intervention within PHSE as well as its effect upon pupils mental wellbeing. The study was carried out in one school over a half-term, with a sample size of 67 pupils agreed 11 to 12 years old, of whom 53% were boys. The pupils were assessed for levels of perfectionism, emotional state, stress, anxiety, self-esteem and self-compassion, as well as providing feedback on each session, with 37 pupils in the CMT group and 30 in the PHSE group. At the start of the study period there were no significant differences between the two groups, while at the end the CMT for Pupils group had statistical significantly lower levels of anxiety, with lowered perfectionism and greater self-compassion, although these two did not fully meet statistical thresholds. A group of 6 pupils from the CMT for Pupils group also supplied their thoughts on the SEL elements of the intervention, including feeling more able to be aware of and engage with their emotions, along with a sense of greater understanding and connection with other pupils. Improvements in emotional behaviour within the classroom by themselves and other pupils was also noted. Unlike the Paws b study, this study highlights the potential challenges which can arise within such interventions, with some pupils finding the CMT exercises emotionally hard and difficult to engage with. That said the overall feedback on the intervention from pupils was that it was helpful and enjoyable, with 68% saying it would be useful for fellow pupils in their year group. There are a few limitations noted, including the low sample size, potential bias from teachers, and the lack of a specific measure around prosocial behaviours. These points aside, the results suggest that CMT for Pupils may offer an acceptable and feasible SEL approach, which pupils enjoyed, with the intervention appearing to offer some protection around pupils anxiety across a short time period.
The role of nature
Alongside supporting wellbeing, research on nature connection has also suggested a link to prosocial behaviours, as noted in this previous Compassionate Nature article.. Kevin Lanza and colleagues at the University of Texas 2023 paper looked at the links between SEL and nature connectedness. Research has suggested that nature connection is supportive of feelings of relatedness, autonomy and competence which are helpful components of SEL. The study was undertaken during 2019 across 3 schools with a sample of 138 pupils, 53% girls, aged between 8 and 10, who were mainly Latino. The study used an annual student survey to obtain SEL data along with two well established measures of nature connection. The results found a limited positive association between one of the nature connection measures and SEL, where higher levels of nature connectedness corresponded with higher SEL skills, especially self-awareness, self-management and managing social relationships. No association was found with the second nature connection measure, which was more around the inclusion of self within nature which may not have been as well understood by the children. The results are limited by the small sample of pupils and are correlational, so a causal relationship between nature connection and SEL cannot be established. However alongside other research on the benefits of nature connection to wellbeing and education, the study results are suggestive that nature based interventions within schools may be beneficial to foster SEL and support pupils mental wellbeing.
There is growing concern at the levels of mental health issues within children, with multiple factors being suggested as contributing, including the use of smartphones, social media, worries about the future, and academic pressures, with the latter sometimes leading to or exacerbating maladaptive behaviours such as perfectionism. There are also major challenges with providing support in accessible and timely manner to children, not just to address issues but to reduce them developing by building up skills around emotional awareness and management. Curriculum based interventions offer the potential to help support and foster the social and emotional skills which may help children navigate their way through the contributive factors. However, the longitudinal evidence base for such interventions appears to be mixed and limited, which has been further reflected in the three studies covered. The results across them all suggest potential benefits, but aside from the CMT study, did not address how well these may be received by pupils nor what challenges they may present, such as placing additional burden on staff or the potential to illicit strong emotional reactions in pupils.
Exploring ways to support children’s wellbeing in education appears to be both a critical issue and an opportunity to help foster long term benefits. How to best achieve this and help equip children face the challenges of a rapidly changing and uncertain future is also a critical issue to address.
Thanks ever so much for reading this article. All the research reviewed are open access studies, so they are freely available to read in detail via the links in the article or from the references below. If you think the article would be helpful to someone else please do share on, it is a freely available public post.
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References
Crompton, K., Kaklamanou, D., Fasulo, A., & Somogyi, E. (2024). The Effects of a School-Based Mindfulness Programme (Paws b) on Empathy and Prosocial Behaviour: A Randomised Controlled Trial. Mindfulness, 1-15.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02345-2
Kuusi, A., Tuominen, H., Widlund, A., Korhonen, J., & Niemivirta, M. (2024). Lower secondary students' perfectionistic profiles: Stability, transitions, and connections with well-being. Learning and Individual Differences, 110, 102419. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2024.102419
Lanza, K., Alcazar, M., Chen, B., & Kohl III, H. W. (2023). Connection to nature is associated with social-emotional learning of children. Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, 4, 100083.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2022.100083
Maratos, F. A., Wood, W., Cahill, R., Tronco Hernández, Y. A., Matos, M., & Gilbert, P. (2024). A Mixed-Methods Study of Compassionate Mind Training for Pupils (CMT-Pupils) as a School-Based Wellbeing Intervention. Mindfulness, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-024-02303-y