EFFECTIVENESS OF A CULTURALLY ADAPTED SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING CURRICULUM ON EMOTIONAL AFFECT AND EMOTION REGULATION AMONG INDIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL CHILDREN: A QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

Abstract

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is increasingly acknowledged as a fundamental aspect of comprehensive child education, although culturally sensitive assessments among young children in India are still scarce. Programs created in different contexts might not directly apply to Indian classrooms unless their language, illustrations, teaching methods, and relational beliefs are relevant to the local context. This research analyzed the shifts in emotional affect and emotion regulation from pre-intervention to post-intervention after implementing a culturally tailored, 20-session SEL program (SEED) for Indian elementary school students. An one-group quasi-experimental approach was applied involving 80 Grade 4 students aged 8–9 years from English-medium schools affiliated with CBSE. The program was conducted over a period of five weeks in small groups. Positive and negative affect were measured using a brief version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, while cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression were evaluated with a child-friendly Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Paired-sample t tests analyzed scores from pre-tests and post-tests. Cohen’s dz was used to derive standardized within-person effect sizes. Initial findings showed an increase in positive affect following the intervention (M change = 4.58, 95% CI [3.46, 5.70], t(79) = 8.12, p < .001, dz = 0.91) and a decrease in negative affect (M change = -4.06, 95% CI [-5.24, -2.88], t(79) = -6.87, p < .001, dz = -0.77). Cognitive reappraisal rose (M change = 4.64, 95% CI [3.36, 5.92], t(79) = 7.24, p < .001, dz = 0.81), while expressive suppression declined (M change = -3.72, 95% CI [-4.97, -2.47], t(79) = -5.93, p < .001, dz = -0.66). Involvement in the SEED curriculum was linked to positive shifts in emotional experience and strategies for regulating emotions. Nonetheless, the lack of a control group, dependence on children's self-reports, inadequate records of measure adjustments and intervention consistency, along with the tentative nature of the source data, hinder conclusive causal inferences. A preregistered, cluster-randomized assessment utilizing validated measures in the local language