Parents’ perspectives on adolescent social emotional learning: an explorative qualitative study amongst parents of students in prevocational secondary education

Purpose: 

Worldwide, schools implement social-emotional learning programs to enhance students' social-emotional skills. Although parents play an essential role in teaching these skills, knowledge about their perspectives on social-emotional learning is limited. In providing insight into the perspectives of parents from adolescent students this paper adds to this knowledge. 

Design/methodology/approach: 

An explorative qualitative study was conducted to gain insight into parents' perspectives (N = 32) on adolescent social-emotional learning. A broadly used professional framework for social emotional learning was used as a frame of reference in interviews with parents from diverse backgrounds. Within and across case analyses were applied to analyze the interviews. 

Findings: 

A conceptual model of four social-emotional skills constructs considered crucial learning by parents emerged from the data: respectful behavior, cooperation, self-knowledge and self-reliance. Parents' language, interpretations and orderings of skills indicate that the model underlying these constructs differs from skills embedded in the professional framework. 

Research limitations/implications: 

Participants were small in number and mainly female. Therefore, more research is necessary to test the model in other parent populations. 

Practical implications: 

The social-emotional skills students in prevocational secondary education learn at home differ from those targeted in SEL programs. Engaging students’ parents in SEL program implementation is indicated to align the skills taught at home and school. Preparing teachers to implement such programs requires training them on engaging parents from diverse backgrounds. 

Originality/value: 

The study is one of the first providing insight into parents’ perspectives on SEL, the social-emotional skills deemed crucial to master for adolescents, and the roles they view for themselves and school on teaching these skills.