Teachers’ and Students’ Changes in Social and Emotional Competences Following the Implementation of PROMEHS: A European Program for Promoting Mental Health at Schools

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is the process through which both students and teachers acquire and effectively apply the same social and emotional competences such as learning to understand and use emotions, set positive goals, establish, and maintain positive relationships and engage in responsible decision making. Most interventions to develop SEL at schools have focused exclusively on students, whereas there is a paucity of research examining teachers’ own social and emotional competences. Current study aimed to address changes in teachers’ and students’ perceptions of social and emotional skills following the Promoting Mental Health at Schools (PROMEHS) program, an intervention targeting both teachers’ and students’ social and emotional competences. Hundred fifty-two Greek teachers from kindergarten to secondary schools completed the Social and Emotional Competence for Teachers (SECTRS) for their social and emotional competences. Teachers also completed the SSIS SEL Brief Scales-Teacher K-12 Form for their 1558 students’ social and emotional competences. Finally, 458 students completed the SSIS SEL Brief Scales-Student Form for their social and emotional competences. Teachers reported moderate changes in their own social and emotional competences. They also reported moderate changes for their students’ social and emotional competences, which were further confirmed by students’ reports. Findings are discussed in terms of teacher training and professional development.