Comparing the Effectiveness of Social-Emotional Learning Curriculum of Strong Kids on Social-Emotional Competence, Academic Resiliency and Sense of Belonging to School among Primary School Children of Affluent and Deprived Areas of Hamedan

Introduction: The current research aimed to assess the effectiveness of strong kids’ social-emotional learning programme in the social-emotional competence, academic resiliency and sense of belonging to school of primary school students in Hamedan’s affluent and deprived districts. Method:The study was carried out by following quasi-experimental unequal groups design. Four five-grade classes, purposively chosen from deprived (2 classes) and affluent (2 classes) districts, were randomly assigned as control and experimental groups. As a pre-test, the social-emotional competence, academic resiliency and sense of belonging to school questionnaires were administered, followed by the treatment which included 12 instructional sessions and covered strong kids’ social-emotional learning programme for the experimental groups which continued for three months. Finally, the data was analyzed by using factor variance analysis as the assumption of covariance analysis were not met. Results: The results indicated that social-emotional competence, academic resiliency and sense of belonging to school are higher in experimental groups than those of control groups. In addition, it was found that strong kids’ social–emotional instruction influenced social-emotional competence and academic resiliency among the deprived district’s students more than those of rich district students. However, there was not observed a meaningful difference among the subjects in the affluent and deprived areas in sense of belonging to school. Conclusion: Whereas that the strong kid's program in Iran has social validity, it is hoped that this program will be used to improve the social-emotional competence, academic resiliency and sense of belonging to school.