Social and emotional learning programs (SEL) have become popular in schools in the last few decades. These programs help students acquire social, emotional, and behavioral skills that allow them to better succeed in school and in life. Durlak et al. say the goal of such programs is to increase constructive ways for students to grapple with their emotions by way of increasing both self-awareness and empathy for others.
The assumption behind SEL programs, say Dozors et al., is that students who cannot successfully strategize how to manage their emotions are at higher risk for emotional problems such as anxiety, depression, self-harm, or substance abuse. It is thought that SEL programs will help prevent mental and emotional illnesses in students.
Many SEL programs successfully employ mindfulness-based cognitive therapy programming, rather than focus on mental illness symptoms. Such CBT programs aid students with problem-solving and regulating emotions. The in-school programs use cognitive restructuring to alter unhelpful thinking that is associated with undesired or problematic emotions.
Another treatment, dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), was developed as a type of CBT specifically to deal with symptoms of severe emotional dysregulation........