There is growing awareness of the benefits of curriculum-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs in Early Childhood Education and Care settings for children’s social, emotional, and cognitive development. While many SEL programs aim to strengthen teachers’ capacity and capability to foster children’s social and emotional skills, research effort has focused on understanding the impact on child outcomes, with less emphasis on improvement in teaching quality. This systematic literature review examined the effectiveness of universal curriculum-based SEL programs on teacher outcomes. Fifteen studies met inclusion criteria, capturing ten distinct SEL interventions. The findings suggest SEL programs may strengthen teaching quality, particularly the provision of responsive and nurturing teacher-child interactions and effective classroom management. Data were insufficient to ascertain whether participation improved teachers’ knowledge, self-efficacy, or social-emotional wellbeing. The potential pathways between SEL intervention, teaching quality and children’s developmental outcomes are discussed.

Early childhood educators play an important role in supporting children’s social and emotional development. While a growing body of research has examined the impact of curriculum-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs on child outcomes, the approaches educators use to strengthen children’s social and emotional functioning through their everyday practices are less defined. This study explored Australian early childhood educators’ perspectives on children’s social and emotional development, the approaches educators use to encourage children’s social and emotional skills, the enablers and barriers to SEL within the preschool environment, and the additional support needed. Thirty Early Childhood Education and Care professionals participated in semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions. Findings suggest children’s social–emotional development is at the forefront of educator planning, practice, and reflection. Participants described utilising various approaches to support children’s social and emotional skills, embedded within interactions and relationships with children and families. Specifically, strategies could be grouped into four broad categories: a nurturing and responsive educator–child relationship; supporting SEL through everyday interactions and practice; utilising the physical environment to encourage SEL; and working in partnership with caregivers. There was, however, inconsistency in the variety and type of approaches identified. Time constraints, group size, educator confidence and capability, high staff turnover, and limited guidance regarding high-quality social and emotional pedagogy were identified as key barriers. Participants sought practical strategies that could be embedded into daily practice to build upon current knowledge.

A growing body of research evidence suggests universal (Tier 1) Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) interventions in early childhood education and care settings can improve children’s social and emotional development. Less is known however about the effectiveness of targeted (Tier 2) programmes for preschoolers experiencing social, emotional or behavioural challenges. A systematic literature review was conducted to examine the outcomes associated with targeted (Tier 2) SEL interventions; 19 studies were captured in the review. Findings revealed that while evidence for targeted SEL programming is still emerging, it may offer a promising early intervention approach to strengthen aspects of children’s social and behavioural functioning. Based on the evidence reviewed, the impact of targeted SEL intervention on emotional competencies could not be established. Programmes were predominately directed to preschoolers with externalizing problems and there appears to be a dearth of approaches focused on internalizing behaviour. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Objective: To systematically review research into the use of humour-based health promotion strategies for addressing public health issues during the past 10 years. Method: The systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Results: Thirteen studies were included in the review. Mental health, breast and testicular cancer self-examination, safe sex, skin cancer and binge drinking public health issues were targeted. Humour-based strategies were used to influence health attitudes and behaviours, encourage interpersonal sharing to indirectly affect health behaviour, and investigate the level of threat and humour associated with positive outcomes. Findings provided some evidence to support the use of humour-based strategies as determined by the right combination of audience characteristics, level of humour and amusement evoked, and message persuasion and behaviour change methods underpinning strategies. Conclusion: Methodologies varied limiting comparability, although overall results indicate that humour-based health promotion strategies may be a useful tool for increasing awareness and help-seeking behaviour for public health priorities, particularly those associated with stigma. Implications for public health: Humour interventions vary widely because there can never be a standardised approach to evoking humour. Further research examining humour and public health promotion is needed.

High-quality early childhood education and care (ECEC) can strengthen the social and emotional skills that are crucial for children’s ongoing development. With research highlighting an increasing prevalence of emotional and behavioural challenges in young children, there is emphasis on embedding teaching practices and pedagogies to support social and emotional skills within early learning programs. A growing body of research has examined the impact of social and emotional learning programs in ECEC; however, few studies describe the intervention development process, or how educators and other professionals were engaged to increase the relevance and feasibility of the program. The current paper describes the development of the Cheshire Social-Emotional Engagement and Development (SEED) Educational Program, an online learning tool to support early childhood educators to foster children’s positive mental health. Cheshire SEED was designed using five steps of the Intervention Mapping methodology: (i) comprehensive needs assessment to create a logic model of the problem; (ii) creation of program outcomes and change objectives mapped against determinants of educator behaviour; (iii) co-design of theory-based methods and practical strategies; (iv) program development; and (v) adoption and implementation planning. The process and decisions at each step of the IM protocol are presented, and the strengths and limitations of the approach to develop a mental health intervention for ECEC settings are discussed.

PARENT–CHILD RELATIONSHIPS are the most critical for children's social and emotional development and wellbeing. While parent–child relationship support programs are well documented, there are none designed for educators’ use within early education and care settings. To inform development of an educator program, an understanding of educators’ everyday practices, their role in supporting parent–child relationships and children's social and emotional development was sought. Educators reported the importance of parent– child relationships, yet were hesitant to engage with parents. Educators’ knowledge was primarily implicit—drawing on observations and practical experiences to build their knowledge of relationships and social and emotional development—which contributed to reluctance in sharing their knowledge with parents. Educators requested theoretical, evidence-based approaches to build further knowledge and inform everyday practices in supporting parent–child relationships. These findings are critical to the development of an educator-led parent–child relationship program for use within education and care settings.