Anyah Lewis

Mentor: Dr. Gina McGovern 
Research: The Impact of Social Emotional Learning Practices in Children with Adverse Childhood Experiences

Over 38 percent of children in every state have or more Adverse Childhood Experiences (Blair, 2017). Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are defined as the traumatic events that occur in a child’s life before the age of 18. Children with adverse childhood experiences often face life-long health conditions or mental and emotional issues. Social and emotional learning (SEL) practices can be used to counteract the effects of ACEs for youth. SEL practices can help educators better assess students’ emotional and mental wellbeing and support youth to develop skills for understanding and managing their emotions. A transformative approach to SEL further supports youth by focusing on supporting students’ identity development, community connections, and addressing systemic issues that impact their lives. For racially minoritized youth, this includes discussing the social and emotional impacts of racism.  In this study, we propose to hold focus groups with out-of-school time educators about their practices for social and emotional learning. We will conduct a thematic analysis of the data to identify examples of trauma-informed SEL practices used by out-of-school time educators.