**Author details**

Janki Shankar1\* and Conita Ip2

\*Address all correspondence to: jshankar@ucalgary.ca


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**Section 2**

**Interventions for a Successful Health-Academic**

**Achievement Binomy**

**Interventions for a Successful Health-Academic Achievement Binomy**

**Chapter 7**

**Provisional chapter**

**Relationships and School Success: From a Social-**

**Relationships and School Success: From a Social-**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.75012

There is an increased body of research indicating the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools. SEL is the processes of acquiring the skills to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, make responsible decisions, establish positive relationships, and handle challenging situations effectively. It is promoted through both direct instruction and the establishment of safe, caring, and supportive learning environments in which all students feel valued, respected, and connected. In support of such arguments are studies linking SEL to a number of positive students' outcomes, including better academic achievement, social behavior, and emotional wellbeing. This chapter addresses how SEL, especially *relationships* as a critical component of SEL, contributes to school success and mental health especially among youth, with research evidence. Further, on the basis that we often do not feel efficacious in fostering SEL due to inadequate training and information, this chapter provides evidence-based

practices to support healthy relationships and learning environments.

**Keywords:** social-emotional learning, relationships, bullying, school climate, youth,

Of all children and youth aged 5–18 in Canada and the U.S., 9 out of 10 attend school [1, 2]. Unfortunately, estimates suggest that students become increasingly disengaged as they progress through secondary school, with some studies estimating that 40–60% of youth show signs of disengagement [3], which often tend to be associated with other school maladjustment. Given that school adjustment problems foreshadow many types of dysfunction over the life

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

**Emotional Learning Perspective**

**Emotional Learning Perspective**

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Chiaki Konishi and Tracy K.Y. Wong

Chiaki Konishi and Tracy K.Y. Wong

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75012

academic achievement, mental health

**Abstract**

**1. Introduction**

#### **Relationships and School Success: From a Social-Emotional Learning Perspective Relationships and School Success: From a Social-Emotional Learning Perspective**

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.75012

Chiaki Konishi and Tracy K.Y. Wong Chiaki Konishi and Tracy K.Y. Wong

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75012

#### **Abstract**

There is an increased body of research indicating the importance of social-emotional learning (SEL) in schools. SEL is the processes of acquiring the skills to recognize and manage emotions, develop caring and concern for others, make responsible decisions, establish positive relationships, and handle challenging situations effectively. It is promoted through both direct instruction and the establishment of safe, caring, and supportive learning environments in which all students feel valued, respected, and connected. In support of such arguments are studies linking SEL to a number of positive students' outcomes, including better academic achievement, social behavior, and emotional wellbeing. This chapter addresses how SEL, especially *relationships* as a critical component of SEL, contributes to school success and mental health especially among youth, with research evidence. Further, on the basis that we often do not feel efficacious in fostering SEL due to inadequate training and information, this chapter provides evidence-based practices to support healthy relationships and learning environments.

**Keywords:** social-emotional learning, relationships, bullying, school climate, youth, academic achievement, mental health

## **1. Introduction**

Of all children and youth aged 5–18 in Canada and the U.S., 9 out of 10 attend school [1, 2]. Unfortunately, estimates suggest that students become increasingly disengaged as they progress through secondary school, with some studies estimating that 40–60% of youth show signs of disengagement [3], which often tend to be associated with other school maladjustment. Given that school adjustment problems foreshadow many types of dysfunction over the life

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

cycle [4, 5], it is important to understand the process through which students adapt to schools and identify different ways to support them.

Bullying is typically defined as an aggressive peer-to-peer behavior involving a power differentiation between the perpetrator and the victim; this behavior is also enacted repeatedly over time with the intention to do harm [15]. Researchers and educators have increasingly acknowledged that bullying continues to be a serious problem in schools around the world, with evidence that involvement in bullying (as a victim or a bully) affects children and adolescents' health. For example, more than 40% Canadian students in grades 6–10 reported being

Relationships and School Success: From a Social-Emotional Learning Perspective

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105

Bullying takes several forms, including physical assault, ethnic discrimination, rumor victimization, sexual harassment, and verbal assault. Being a victim is not without consequence - indeed, victimization by peers is associated with a broad range of difficulties, both immediate and long term, in the areas of mental health, academic performance, and overall well-being [17]. The detrimental effects of bullying do not end with the victims, however. A recent study of students in grades 8 to 10 has reported that nearly 90% of the students had witnessed either their friends or other students being bullied at least a few times during the school year and that witnessing

Academic achievements among youth are of great importance for prospective school and career choices. A growing body of research has demonstrated significant links between school bullying and academic achievement (e.g., see [19, 20]). Students who are bullied by peers are likely to demonstrate poor academic performance (e.g., see [19, 20]), as are children who bully others [21]. Together, this line of research is consistent with the arguments that children's social experiences at school affect their academic performance [11, 12]. A recent meta-analysis with 29,552 school students revealed significant negative correlation between peer victimiza-

Few studies [20, 23] on bullying have investigated the influence of school-level factors on individual academic performance. Konishi et al. [20] conducted one of the few multilevel studies in this area and found that school-level bullying was associated with lower grades among 15-year-olds. This study has addressed the need to simultaneously investigate individual and contextual influences on students' academic achievement. There is also a link between bullying and high school dropout rates. Cornell and colleagues [24] have found that the prevalence of bullying as perceived by both ninth grade students and teachers was predictive of dropout

Researchers have long demonstrated that being involved as both a victim and bully seems to compound the impact of bullying, with bully-victims experiencing worse outcomes than either bullies or victims and being at greater risk for various types of mental health problems. These include anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, self-harm, suicidality, physical injury, substance abuse, and delinquency [25–27]. A recent trajectory study [28] has further demonstrated that, as compared to low-involvement students and after controlling for initial psychopathology, stable victims showed greater levels of anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit hyperactivity

both bullied and bullying others and this high prevalence remains [16].

bullying was associated with higher levels of depression [18].

**2.1. Associations with academic achievement**

tion and academic achievement [22].

rates for this cohort 4 years later.

**2.2. Associations with mental health**

Schools are challenging contexts for students, especially for youth, by nature and design. These challenges include the instructional features of classrooms and schools, such as didactic small- and large-group instruction, teacher-initiated/monitored learning activities, and programmatic curriculum sequences. At present, much is known about how students' cognitive and linguistic skills and their socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds function as precursors of their achievement and adjustment. Less well recognized are the many types of interpersonal challenges that youth confront in school. Beyond basic tasks such as relating with classmates and schoolmates and forming ties with teachers, youth find that they are under increasing pressure to compare and evaluate themselves, their abilities, and their achievements to those of peers. Many of these challenges are repeated as students progress through grades. In each new classroom, they must negotiate their needs in dyadic and group settings and reestablish relationships with classmates and teachers. Moreover, it is likely that these challenges are intensified when students change schools or cope with school transitions [6, 7].

In light of the above, an important task facing educational and developmental researchers is to investigate the roles of students' classroom/school interpersonal skills and relationships as precursors of school adaption and adjustment. Indeed, diverging from the traditional focus on the three Rs, including *r*eading, w*r*iting, and arithmetic [8], an emerging line of research points to the importance of the fourth *R* of education, *relationships*. In corroboration, the school-climate [9] and social-emotional learning (SEL) [10] literature highlights the role of relationships in supporting school success and mental well-being.

The recognition of SEL has been gradually spread around the world in recent years [10]. SEL refers to the process through which children and adults develop a set of skills and competencies to recognize and manage emotions, develop care and concern for others, make responsible decisions, establish positive relationships, and handle challenging situations effectively; these skills are promoted through both direct instructions and the establishment of a safe, caring, and supportive learning environment in which all students feel valued, respected, and connected [11]. Its importance is evidenced through its relationships with various positive student outcomes [12].

To illustrate the importance to consider which aspects of students' school adjustment are affected by interpersonal factors, this chapter will first address how interpersonal relationships, including relationships with peers, teachers, and family, contribute to school success and mental health among youth. We will end the chapter with a discussion about how we can better support these relationships.
