Research project Social and emotional competence and family well-being as children become teenagers
The Applied Developmental Science research group is working to advance what we know about the strengths of children and adolescents, and support families with adolescent children.
Social Emotional Competence and Positive Youth Development
Over several years, we have been involved in diverse efforts to understand and support the positive development of children and adolescents, as well as support families with adolescent children. Our interest in social emotional competence comes from a strengths-based view of youth, and an aim to support critical resources related to positive development. Social emotional competence involves thinking, feeling and acting in the world, and is important throughout a person’s life. For example, some competencies involve learning to interpret and understand emotions and social situations, as well as strengthening individuals’ ability to self-direct their own efforts at school and at home.
More information about social emotional competence can be found at the CASEL website.
Project description
The PATHS project in Sweden
Some years ago, we culturally adapted and examined the effects of a U.S. based curriculum and intervention that supports social emotional learning in preschool aged children. The intervention is called preschool PATHS® (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies). The study involved over 200 four and five-year-old Swedish children. This study was conducted in collaboration with Swedish municipalities and preschools, and in collaboration with research team members affiliated with Special Pedagogy, Psychology, or Social Work departments across different Swedish universities, as well as with the support of international collaborators.
Funding for this study was from the first combined research grant call by FORTE, FORMAS, the Swedish Research Council, and VINNOVA on child and adolescent mental health, as well as funding from the Groschinsky Foundation (in Swedish, Stiftelsen Clas Groschinskys Minnesfond) and Stockholm University’s Social Science CKVO Committee (in Swedish, Centrum för kompetensutveckling inom vård och omsorg).
You can learn more about the project findings related to children’s social emotional competence and the effects of PATHS in a series of studies that we have published. We continue to examine these topics, and we post our new findings in the Publications section of this website as our findings are published.
Today’s Research Studies
Social emotional competence and family well-being as children become teenagers
We are now conducting new research studies that document the development of young people. We are investigating how social emotional competencies and well-being change across developmental and social transitions, from early childhood to early adolescence. This work is, in part, a continuation of the original PATHS study. Our current research projects also include work to explore the effects of a new intervention, the Parent Web*, that is aimed at supporting parents of adolescent children.
These projects are funded by FORTE and Stockholm University/Region Stockholm.
* The Parent Web is created and developed by researchers at Karolinska Institute's Department of Clinical Neuroscience, namely Kajsa Lönn-Rhodin, Martin Forster, and Pia Enebrink. An effectiveness trial of the universal edition of the Parent Web is made possible through a research collaboration with Pia Enebrink.
Project members
Project managers
Laura Ferrer Wreder
Associate Professor
Members
Sabina Cehajic-Clancy
Associate Professor
Pia Enebrink
Associate Professor, Lic. Psychologist
Lilianne Eninger
Associate Professor, Deputy Head of Department
Hanna Ginner Hau
Ställföreträdande prefekt, docent
Sabina Kapetanovic
Guest Researcher
Lene Lindberg
Associate Professor, Lic. Psychologist
Åsa Norman
Senior research specialist
Tina M. Olsson
Associate Professor
Mina Sedem
Universitetslektor, studierektor
Johanna Stålnacke
Adjunct Teacher
Nardos Tesfay
Guest Researcher, Project Coordinator
Mara Westling Allodi
Professor
Ingela Clausén Gull
PhD Student
Anna Strid
Projektkoordinator
Publications
Book chapter (2020)
Ferrer-Wreder, L., Eninger, L., Hau, H. G., Olsson, T. M., Sedem, M., Thomas, S., & Westling, M. A. (2020). Childcare, culture, and child development: A Swedish perspective. In L. A. Jensen (Ed.), The oxford handbook of moral development: An interdisciplinary perspective (pp. 516-533). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.