Teaching Simple Strategies to Foster Emotional Well-Being

Emily A Iovino; Jessica B Koslouski; Sandra M Chafouleas

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.772260

Teaching Simple Strategies to Foster Emotional Well-Being

Front Psychol. 2021 Nov 10:12:772260. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.772260. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Emily A Iovino^{1

2}, Jessica B Koslouski^{1

2}, Sandra M Chafouleas^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Collaboratory on School and Child Health, Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States.
² Department of Educational Psychology, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented considerable disruptions to routines that have challenged emotional well-being for children and their caregivers. One direction for supporting emotional well-being includes strategies that help children feel their best in the moment, which can bolster their capacity to respond appropriately to thoughts and behaviors. Strengthening emotional well-being equitably, however, must include opportunities in settings that are easily accessible to all, such as schools. In this paper, we focus on simple, evidence-informed strategies that can be used in schools to promote positive feelings in the moment and build coping behaviors that facilitate tolerance of uncertainty. We focus on those strategies that educators can easily and routinely use across ages, stages, and activities. Selected strategies are primarily tied to cognitive behavioral theory, with our review broadly organized across categories of self-awareness, self-soothing, and social relationships. We review evidence for each, providing examples that illustrate ease of use in school settings.

Keywords: cognitive behavioral therapy; coping strategies; emotional well-being; kernels; positive emotion; school-based strategies.

Publication types

Review