CHANGES IN COGNITIVE REAPPRAISAL AND EXPRESSIVE SUPPRESSION AS PREDICTORS OF EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING FOLLOWING A SCHOOL-BASED SEL INTERVENTION
Abstract
School-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs may contribute to children’s emotional well-being by strengthening adaptive emotion-regulation strategies and decreasing excessive reliance on expressive suppression. However, empirical evidence concerning culturally adapted SEL interventions for Indian primary-school students remains comparatively scarce. This study examined changes in cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression, positive affect, and negative affect following participation in the five-week, 20-session SEED Curriculum. It also outlined an individual-level analytical framework for determining whether changes in emotion-regulation strategies predict emotional well-being after the intervention. A single-group quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design was used with 80 Grade 4 students aged 8–9 years who attended English-medium schools affiliated with the Central Board of Secondary Education in India. Positive and negative affect were measured using a short-form version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, whereas cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression were assessed using a child-adapted Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Paired-samples t tests and standardized within-participant effect sizes were reconstructed from the aggregate statistics presented in the source dissertation. Mean positive affect increased from 24.63 (SD = 3.87) at pre-test to 29.21 (SD = 4.14) at post-test, t(79) = 8.12, p < .001, dz = 0.91. Mean negative affect declined from 18.38 (SD = 4.02) to 14.32 (SD = 3.47), t(79) = −6.87, p < .001, dz = −0.77. Cognitive reappraisal increased from 20.46 (SD = 4.33) to 25.10 (SD = 3.98), t(79) = 7.24, p < .001, dz = 0.81. In contrast, expressive suppression decreased from 22.31 (SD = 3.71) to 18.59 (SD = 3.92), t(79) = −5.93, p < .001, dz = −0.66. These aggregate results demonstrate a consistent pattern of favorable change in affective outcomes and emotion-regulation strategy use. Nevertheless, predictive regression analyses could not be conducted because participant-level data were unavailable. Participation in the intervention was associated with substantial favorable changes between pre-test and post-test. However, the findings require confirmation using verified participant-level data, a suitable comparison group, psychometrically validated child measures, and baseline-adjusted regression or mediation analyses before it can be concluded that changes in cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression predict children’s emotional well-being.