| 1. |
- Cefai, Carmel, et al.
(författare)
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A resilience curriculum for early years and primary schools in Europe : enhancing quality education
- 2014
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Ingår i: Croatian Journal of Education. - Zagreb : Fac Teacher Education. - 1848-5189. ; 16, s. 11-32
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- About twenty percent of school children experience social, emotional and behaviour problems during the course of any given year and may need the use of mental health services. The number may rise to up to fifty percent amongst children coming from socio-economically disadvantaged areas and from vulnerable communities. The economic crisis which Europe is undergoing at the moment has exacerbated the risks among those already facing disadvantages such as unemployment of young people and new families, increasing poverty and social disadvantage for the whole communities and regions. These challenges underline the need to equip children from an early age with the requisite skills to help them overcome the challenges and obstacles they are set to face in such circumstances while providing healthy and protective contexts which promote their health and well-being. This paper describes the development of a resilience curriculum for children in early years and primary schools in Europe with the aim of enhancing quality education for all children, including the most vulnerable ones. It presents and discusses the curriculum framework developed from the existing literature, including the key principles, processes and themes underlying the curriculum.
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| 2. |
- Cefai, Carmel, et al.
(författare)
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Social inclusion and social justice : A resilience curriculum for early years and elementary schools in Europe
- 2015
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Ingår i: Journal of Multicultural Education. - Bingley, United Kingdom : Emerald Group Publishing Limited. - 2053-535X. ; 9:3, s. 122-139
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a resilience curriculum in early years and primary schools to enhance social inclusion, equity and social justice amongst European communities, particularly amongst disadvantaged and vulnerable ones, through quality education. It defines educational resilience in terms of academic, social and emotional growth in the face of life challenges; discusses the conceptual framework and key principles underpinning the curriculum; and presents the six major content areas of the curriculum. Finally, it presents the preliminary findings of a pilot project on the implementation of the curriculum in more than 200 classrooms in about 80 early and primary schools in six European countries.Design/methodology/approach: The curriculum was first drafted collaboratively amongst the six partners on the basis of the existing literature in the promotion of resilience in early years and primary schools, with a particular focus to European realities. Once it was internally reviewed, it was piloted in 200 early years and primary school classrooms in six European countries, with each of the six partners implementing one theme. Data collection included teacher reflective diaries, classroom checklists, semi-structured interviews with teachers and focus groups with students.Findings: The preliminary results from the pilot evaluation of the curriculum in 199 classrooms totalling 1,935 students across six countries indicate that both the teachers and the learners overwhelmingly found the curriculum highly enjoyable, useful, relevant and easy to use. They looked forward to the possibility of having the programme on a full-time basis as part of the general curriculum in the future. The teachers reported a positive moderate change in learners’ behaviour related to the theme implemented and argued that for the implementation to be effective, it needs to take place throughout the whole year. A number of modifications have been on the basis of the teachers’ and learners’ feedback.Originality/value: This is the first resilience curriculum for early years and primary schools in Europe. While it seeks to address the needs of vulnerable children such as Roma children, immigrant and refugee children and children with individual educational needs, it does so within an assets-based, developmental, inclusive and culturally responsive approach, thus avoiding potential labelling and stigmatising, while promoting positive development and growth. It puts the onus on the classroom teacher, in collaboration with parents and other stakeholders, in implementing the curriculum in the classroom.
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Eriksson, Charli, et al.
(författare)
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Design and implementation of RESCUR in Sweden for promoting resilience in children : a study protocol
- 2018
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Ingår i: BMC Public Health. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2458. ; 18
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: This research program aims to investigate the implementation and effects of a theoretically promising prevention method. It is being developed in a European research collaboration within a Comenius project (2012-2015) between 6 European universities (in Malta, Italy, Greece, Croatia, Portugal and Sweden) with the purpose of enhancing European children's resilience. Methods/design: RESCUR in Sweden consists in a RCT study of the Resilience Curriculum (RESCUR) that is taking place in Sweden 2017-2019. The study is being performed by Junis, IOGT-NTO's Junior Association, part of IOGT International, in conjunction with researchers at Goteborg, Umea and Stockholm universities, and is being funded by the Public Health Agency of Sweden.Around 1000 children of the ages 7-12 will, through their schools and associations, or via groups in social services, be acquainted with the material. Children will learn and practice mindfulness, storytelling, group discussions and much more, all designed to strengthen protective factors and increase their resilience. The program also involves parents, who are taking part in the work to reinforce children's protective factors.Based on the work with groups of children, an effectiveness study including children aged 7-12 in school classes, with randomized and controlled pre- and post-measurements, self-rating questionnaires and group observations is being performed. The program will also be implemented in a non-governmental organization and in groups in social services. The study also investigates forms of implementation. Discussion:The design of the study will enable the researchers to answer five research questions by using a mixed-methods approach. Implementation will be studied, which is a necessary prerequisite for an effect study. Moreover, the research procedure has been tailored to the target group, with age-appropriate measures as well as multiple informants, which will produce high-quality data for analysis. A special ethical challenge is the study of young children, and efforts to give children a voice have been included in the program. This project is regarded as having good potential to benefit children in general, and particularly children in vulnerable positions.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Eriksson, C., et al.
(författare)
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Supporting implementation of resilience training among school-aged children - RESCUR in Sweden
- 2020
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Ingår i: European Journal of Public Health. - : Oxford University Press. - 1101-1262 .- 1464-360X. ; 30:Supplement_5
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Issue: What is needed to facilitate implementation of an intervention when scaling up and scaling out the program?Description of the problem: RESCUR: Surfing the Waves (Jag vill, jag kan, jag törs!) is a new resilience curriculum, developed in 2012-2015 by researchers in six European Universities, to foster the psychosocial development of children and give them tools to deal with challenging situations. It aims at increasing children's resilience, i.e. their capacity to cope with disadvantages, crises, changes and stress without breaking down. The RESCUR project in Sweden consists of a Randomized Controlled Trial among children of the ages 6-12 in schools or social services. RESCUR is a pedagogic material, which requires training before getting access to the intervention. The training consists of two days and a follow-up day as well as observation and supervision. The project has been evaluated from two perspectives: implementation and effects. For a theoretically promising method to work at all, the method must be implemented effectively and correctly. Implementation was documented through self-evaluations, reported by group leaders after six months, and observations made according to a formalized checklist. The implementation of the method is fundamental to properly evaluating the effects of the method.Results: The model used to train and support people who implemented the intervention seems to have worked according to the self-reports and the observations of lessons, which noted good implementation quality in the activities that were carried out every week by the majority of teachers and group leaders. The observed implementation was exemplary or very strong among 56 % in schools (n = 41) and 41 % in social services (n = 12).Lessons: An important challenge in health promotion is ensuring that an intervention is implemented in an efficient way. Recruiting participants and training implementers are basic requirements for successful trials.Key messages:The implementation of the health promoting method is fundamental to properly evaluating the effects of the method. Therefore, an educational and monitoring component is needed.Different implementers can achieve the high-quality implementation of an intervention. Training, observation, feedback, supervision and educational material all supported the implementation of RESCUR.
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| 7. |
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| 8. |
- Kimber, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Prevention of substance use among adolescents through social and emotional training in school: A latent-class analysis of a five-year intervention in Sweden
- 2009
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Ingår i: Journal of Adolescence. - : Wiley. - 0140-1971 .- 1095-9254. ; 32:6, s. 1403-1413
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The study considers the impact of a program for social and emotional learning in Swedish schools on use of drugs, volatile substances, alcohol and tobacco. The program was evaluated in an effectiveness study. Intervention Students were compared longitudinally with non-intervention students using nonparametric latent class analysis to identify subgroups of students with similar use levels and trajectories. Statistically significant intervention-by-duration interactions, with medium to large effect sizes to the advantage of the SET students were found for all Substances in one or more, but not all, of the latent classes. Favorable trajectories were found for non-users/light users of drugs, moderate sniffers, non-users/light users of alcohol, and occasional smokers. Only among heavy smokers was there a possible iatrogenic effect of SET. Such programs, given a duration of two years or more, may dampen increases in use with age and discourage early debut, although they are not specifically targeted at use itself.
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| 9. |
- Kimber, Birgitta
(författare)
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Primary prevention of mental health problems among children and adolescents through social and emotional training in school
- 2011
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Among younger people in many high-income countries, mental ill-health, which includes depression, aggressive behavior, feeling down, and alcohol and drug abuse, is one of the greatest health problems. Since most young people attend school, there are grounds for pursuing the prevention of ill-health in the educational arena. A set of techniques, named social and emotional learning (SEL), based on cognitive and behavioral methods, is available to teachers to train students to improve self-control, social competence, empathy, motivation and self-awareness. SEL programs have their underpinnings in the theories of cognitive development and social learning, and in application of the ideas of risk and protective factors. The primary aim of this dissertation is to describe and evaluate, in a real-life setting, the impacts of a Swedish program derived from SEL, called social and emotional training (SET), on various mental-health outcomes. Such programs have been shown to have favorable effects in the international literature, but have not been tested before in Sweden. Sub-aims were to investigate whether there were outcome differences between subgroups, and to assess the development of an instrument for the measurement of social emotional maturity. The evaluation was performed in two experimental and two control schools (41 and 20 classes, respectively) in Botkyrka Municipality in Greater Stockholm. A variety of statistical analyses were applied to the data collected: two repeated-measures cohort analyses, with rather different designs, to measure changes over two and five years; latent-class analysis to examine variability and substance use; and, latent growth curve modeling with full maximum likelihood estimation to scrutinize our earlier findings. On the social and emotional variables, the impact of SET was found to be generally favorable. After five years, the impact of SET was found to be greater for internalizing than for externalizing problems, but no impact on social skills was detected until a quadratic (curvilinear) model was fitted to the data. Weaknesses in SET implementation and in our research approach are highlighted and discussed under certain themes. Project experiences indicate needs for wide community involvement, and greater discipline in administration, and the benefit of using a variety of study designs and statistical approaches in the interpretation of results.
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| 10. |
- Kimber, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Social and emotional training in Swedish schools for the promotion of mental health : an effectiveness study of 5 years of intervention
- 2008
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Ingår i: HEALTH EDUCATION RESEARCH. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0268-1153 .- 1465-3648. ; 23:6, s. 931-940
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The school is an obvious arena for interventions designed to promote mental health among children. A set of educational techniques named social and emotional learning, which focuses on students self-control, social competence, empathy, motivation and self-awareness, has shown promising results in the United States. This is a study of the application of a similar method in Sweden (referred to as social and emotional training) for school years 2000/2001 through to 2004/2005. It is an effectiveness rather than an efficacy study, largely administered by school personnel, which relates duration of the training (1-5 years) to a set of outcomes previously found to be associated with mental health. Positive and significant effects were found on five of seven variables: internalizing problems, externalizing problems, mastery (reflecting self-efficacy or hopelessness), self-image and self-esteem and contentment in school. Effect sizes were medium. Somewhat surprisingly, no relationship was found between the intervention and the promotion of social skills. Nor was there any detectable long-term impact on bullying. Controlling for student gender did not moderate any of the effects.
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| 11. |
- Kimber, Birgitta, et al.
(författare)
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Teacher change and development during training in social and emotional learning programs in Sweden
- 2013
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Ingår i: The International Journal of Emotional Education. - 2073-7629. ; 5:1, s. 17-35
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The paper presents the results from a thematic analysis of the process diaries of teachers involved in teacher training in social and emotional learning (SEL) in Sweden. Twentynine out of the 122 diaries available were analyzed until saturation was reached. The following themes and sub-themes were extracted: development (professional and personal, and classroom climate), and concomitants of development (need for collaboration and unease). The themes and sub-themes are related to theoretical aspects of specialised teacher education and to the debate in Sweden on how to proceed with SEL programs, and more generally with life skills programs. The results suggest that training generates both general teacher improvement and better implementation of SEL programs.
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| 12. |
- Lilja, Josefine, et al.
(författare)
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Does the Delivery System Matter? The Scaling-Out of a School-Based Resilience Curriculum to the Social Services Sector
- 2021
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Psychiatry. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 1664-0640. ; 12
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: The context is highly relevant to the implementation of new health-related programs and is an implicit or explicit part of the major implementation models in the literature. The Resilience Curriculum (RESCUR) program was developed to foster the psychosocial development of children in early and primary education. RESCUR seeks specifically to decrease children's vulnerability. It aims to promote the emotional and social learning of children who may be at risk of leaving school pre-maturely, social exclusion and mental-health problems. The program is taught using a teachers' manual to support consistency of delivery, a parents' guide, and a resource package. This study aimed to examine the scaling-out of RESCUR to social services, and specifically to test if implementation differs between the school and social services sectors.Methods: RESCUR was implemented in schools and social services in Sweden 2017–2019. Data were collected via group leaders' self-reports and observation protocols for 3 months after implementation started. There were 34 self-reports from schools, and 12 from the social services sector; 30 observation protocols were collected from schools, and 10 from social services. We examined whether there were differences in implementation outcomes (in, for example, dosage, duration, fidelity, adaptation, quality of delivery) between the two delivery systems. Descriptive statistics were prepared and non-parametric tests of significance conducted to compare implementation-related factors across the two settings.Results: Analyses of both the observation protocols and group leaders' self-reports revealed that RESCUR was well-implemented in both schools and social services. The results showed a few significant differences in the outcomes of implementation between the sectors. First, regarding observations, school staff more often adapted the pace of RESCUR lessons to ensure that the children could understand than did social services staff (p < 0.01). Second, social services staff demonstrated greater interest in students and sensitivity to the needs of individual students than did school staff (p = 0.02). Regarding self-reports, social services staff reported having delivered more (p = 0.4) and longer (p < 0.01) lessons than did school staff. Second, school staff reported greater fidelity to (p = 0.02) and less adaptation of (p < 0.01) the intervention than did social services staff. Both observations and self-reports, however, indicated a high fidelity of implementation.Conclusions: Overall, the findings suggest that the resilience program, designed for delivery in schools, can be scaled-out to social services with its implementation outcomes retained. Further research is needed to test the effectiveness of the program regarding child health-related outcomes.
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| 13. |
- Miljević-Riđički, Renata, et al.
(författare)
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Resilience in School Children : A Multicultural Comparison between Three Countries – Croatia, Sweden and Portugal
- 2020
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Ingår i: Druatvena istra~ivanja (Zagreb). - Zagreb : Institute of Social Sciences IVO PILAR. - 1330-0288 .- 1848-6096. ; 29:4, s. 555-574
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Culture and context are important for children's development, affecting, inter alia, resilience. The main aim of our research was to find out if resilience among schoolaged children aged 10-12 differs between three countries – Croatia, Sweden and Portugal. The participants were 750 pupils from Croatian, Swedish and Portuguese schools, 54.5% boys and 45.5% girls. The instrument used was the Child and Youth Resilience Measure-28 (CYRM-28). Descriptive statistics were computed, and one-way between--groups ANOVAs were performed. The CYRM total score, as well as the item scores, were high. Both differences and similarities between the three countries were found. Sweden and Portugal share the highest number of non-significant comparisons, followed by Croatia and Sweden. Croatia and Portugal have the least between-pair similarities. The results are discussed in the context of countries' needs for education for resilience and application of the resilience curriculum (RESCUR).
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| 14. |
- Sandell, Rolf, et al.
(författare)
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Heterogeneity in Responses to a Universal Prevention Program
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Primary Prevention. - : Springer Verlag (Germany). - 0278-095X .- 1573-6547. ; 34:6, s. 405-412
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Because universal or primary prevention strategies often target heterogeneous populations, their effects may likewise be expected to be heterogeneous. We sought to explore the heterogeneity of outcomes of previously published results of a longitudinal Swedish study of a school-based socio-emotional learning program. By applying latent class regression analysis to two measures of well-being, we found three significantly different classes with different change trajectories that yielded different outcomes. We conclude that restricting outcome analyses of primary prevention programs to sample means may conceal important heterogeneity regarding individual outcomes.
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| 15. |
- Skoog, Therése, et al.
(författare)
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Editorial
- 2017
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Ingår i: The International Journal of Emotional Education. - 2073-7629. ; 9:2, s. 1-3
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 16. |
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| 17. |
- Skoog, Therese, et al.
(författare)
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Special issue: Social and Emotional Learning and Diversity
- 2017
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Ingår i: The International Journal of Emotional Education. - : Centre for Resilience & Socio-Emotional Health. - 2073-7629 .- 2073-7629. ; 9:2, s. 1-3
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 18. |
- Västhagen, Maja, et al.
(författare)
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Refugee parents’ experiences of coming to Sweden : A qualitative study
- 2022
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Ingår i: International Journal of Intercultural Relations. - : Elsevier. - 0147-1767 .- 1873-7552. ; 91, s. 97-109
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Each year, millions of people worldwide are forced to leave their homes. Many of those affected are families. There are already a considerable number of initiatives designed to support refugees who are resettling in new countries and cultures. However, few are promotive interventions aiming to support parents and thereby their children through the extraordinary challenges they face. To develop a culturally adaptive intervention, more knowledge about how refugee parents from different countries perceive and handle these challenges is needed. This study explores refugee parents’ own perspectives on the obstacles, challenges and opportunities they faced during their first years in Sweden to guide the future development of promotive interventions for refugee parents. Interviews were conducted with Arabic, Kurdish, and Somali-speaking refugee parents (n = 28; 19 mothers, 9 fathers). The interviews were examined using content analysis. One overarching theme emerged; “The new language is the key for entering social networks and society, and for helping your child in a new country”. The new language was viewed as a key to integration, and to mastering parenthood in the new context. This theme consisted of four categories; “parents’ motivation and hope as driving forces,” “navigating among past and present culture and values”, “loneliness as a risk factor” and “a new way of being a parent and relating to an acculturation gap”. These findings may help guide the development of parenting interventions for refugees, to promote integration and well-being among parents and their children.
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