Child Mental Health Series - Episode 4

June 03, 2024

May 29

Understanding Emotions

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ID: 11751
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00:04The Pros for Peers webinar session
00:07is actually a collaboration between
00:09the Yale School of Medicine and
00:11Yale New Haven Health System,
00:12and it's brought to you by the School
00:14of Medicine's Office of Academic and
00:17Professional Development and the
00:19Health Systems Chief Wellness Officer.
00:21At this point, I'd like to turn
00:22it over to Doctor Robert Rohrbach,
00:24who is serves as a Deputy Dean for
00:26Professionalism and Leadership
00:28Development for the School of Medicine.
00:30Thanks so much, Doctor Robot.
00:32Thanks so much, Peggy.
00:33One of our missions is to elevate
00:35well-being for faculty and staff
00:37at the School of Medicine.
00:39In surveys, our faculty and staff have
00:42stated that the well-being of children
00:45is among their most significant concerns.
00:48We're really fortunate to have
00:49world renowned faculty at the
00:51Child Study Center who can help us
00:53address that issue and that goal.
00:54And I'm going to turn it over
00:56to Doctor Christine Olson,
00:57the Chief Wellness Officer of the
00:59Yale New Haven Hospital and the
01:03Aligned Clinical enterprise to
01:05describe the Pros for Peers program
01:08and to introduce Doctor Linda Mays.
01:10Thank you, Doctor Orbaugh.
01:11So the Pros for Peers program
01:13recognizes that at Yale School of
01:15Medicine and Yale New Haven Health,
01:17we are surrounded by world renowned
01:20experts in the various aspects of Wellness.
01:23And in the same spirit that we care
01:25for patients and our community,
01:27we care for one another.
01:29So we seek input from our medical
01:31community on how to maintain and
01:34promote their well-being and aim to
01:36bring them a high quality response.
01:38One topic that has come up on the last
01:41survey is how is Yale recognizing and
01:44supporting the mental health of young people?
01:47And what can each of us do to support
01:49the mental well-being of the young
01:52people in our lives and around us?
01:55And each Wednesday of this
01:57Mental Health Month,
01:58we're proud to bring the expertise of the
02:00globally recognized Yale Child Study Center.
02:02And today to talk about
02:05understanding emotions.
02:05So it is a great pleasure to introduce
02:08the chair of the Yale Style,
02:10the Yale Child Study Center,
02:12our host, Doctor Linda Mays.
02:15Doctor Mays
02:16Yes, thank you, Doctor Olson,
02:18and I'm so glad to have a chance
02:20for this webinar and to have
02:22been able to join you all.
02:23Everyone over this month or
02:25May as Mental Health Month.
02:27I want to introduce you to my colleagues.
02:29But before I do that,
02:31just to tell you very briefly if
02:33you're new to the series today,
02:35just a tiny bit about the Child Study Center.
02:39We were founded in 1911 and
02:42we're a department in the school
02:43at Yale School of Medicine.
02:44We focus on developmental science,
02:46that is, how do children grow in their
02:49understanding of the world and the
02:51skills that they have to navigate that world.
02:53And we're also a department that
02:56provides extensive clinical services,
02:57the children and adolescents
02:59and their families.
03:00We train child psychiatrists,
03:03psychologists,
03:03social workers,
03:04pediatricians,
03:05and we have over 20 different perspectives
03:08or disciplines represented in our
03:10community of just over 500 people,
03:13with a faculty of 170 and then
03:15fellows and trainees and our
03:18staff supporting everything.
03:20Our research spans from basic biology
03:22to working in schools and implementing
03:26interventions in the community.
03:28And we're very,
03:29very deeply engaged in how do we take
03:31the best science and translate that to
03:34programs for children and families.
03:36We serve over 3000 children and
03:39families annually through about
03:41a little over 60,000 visits.
03:44And as I'm sure you've been reading,
03:45there's been a steady increase
03:47in the need for mental health
03:48services across all ages.
03:50And that's what we're trying
03:52to to meet in our services.
03:55I'm very,
03:56very pleased to introduce you to my
03:58colleagues in the Center for Emotional
04:00Intelligence who are with us today.
04:03A group that joined us in the last,
04:05certainly before the pandemic,
04:07as we time things pre and post pandemic,
04:10but a group that really are asking
04:13very key questions about emotion and
04:15how to ensure children's developmental
04:18emotional skills for their well-being.
04:21And today you'll hear about that
04:22and the role of mindfulness and the
04:25case for social emotional learning.
04:27Our first speaker will be Doctor
04:29Mark Mark Brackett,
04:31who is the director of the Yale Center
04:33for Emotional Intelligence and a
04:34professor in the Child Studies Center,
04:36and actually the recent author of
04:39a book called Permission to Feel.
04:41Doctor Brackett will then be
04:43followed by Doctor James Floman,
04:45also a faculty member in
04:46the Child Studies Center,
04:47and James will discuss the role of
04:51mindfulness in supporting children's
04:52psychological health and well-being.
04:55And then we'll our third speaker
04:57today will be Doctor Chris Cipriano,
05:00who is an associate professor and
05:02director of the Education Collaboratory
05:04in the Child Studies Center.
05:06And Chris will really be focusing
05:09on schools and the case for
05:11social emotional learning in the
05:13educational context.
05:15So again, thanks for joining.
05:16And let me turn to Doctor Brackett.
05:18Mark,
05:18can you start us off?
05:20I will be delighted. Thank you.
05:22I guess I should start off by asking
05:24everybody, how are you feeling
05:26since this is our topic of the day,
05:29But that's probably a question that
05:31we don't get asked a lot, right?
05:33Working at a university, you know,
05:35walking around the hallways,
05:36How many times do we stop and say,
05:38just want to know how are you feeling today?
05:41And so that was not a rhetorical question,
05:43by the way, let's just all
05:45take a moment and check in.
05:46It's twelve O 5 on a Wednesday,
05:49Thursday. What is today?
05:51I don't even know
05:54how we feeling. Can we use the chat?
05:56Can people are people
05:58allowed to use the chat?
06:00All right, everybody,
06:01so let's just take a second.
06:02What's your feeling word?
06:04What's your feeling words right now?
06:07I'm excited to be here just
06:09to use my word and feeling
06:11connected to my colleagues,
06:12which is nice to do things together.
06:14Other feelings that are coming up
06:19and from the lack of contribution,
06:22the chat, I am.
06:23All right, here we go.
06:24That's good. We got hopeful.
06:26We got Chris as motivated.
06:29I said my two colleagues who are
06:32presenting their we know their feelings.
06:36Others, Bob, thank you, excited.
06:40We got some curiosity.
06:45It's interesting, you know,
06:46all of us here, right?
06:48We're mentioning that we're
06:49feeling mostly pleasant emotions,
06:51you know, curious, hopeful,
06:53motivated, inspired, excited.
06:58And I wonder, you know, when you look
07:00at the data around the world here,
07:03you know, in Connecticut or elsewhere,
07:05you see people are experiencing,
07:07at least in surveys and in mental
07:10health questionnaires, you know,
07:12not so many pleasant emotions.
07:14And I think the question that we have is,
07:17you know, what are we supposed
07:18to do with our feelings?
07:19Like, do you just sit with those feelings?
07:22Do you ignore those feelings?
07:23Do you deny them?
07:25Do you suppress them or do you learn
07:27how to use those feelings wisely?
07:30And so I wanted to start off by just
07:34saying that the work on emotional
07:37intelligence actually started here at Yale.
07:40Peter Saliva,
07:40who is leaving as our president
07:42but a professor of psychology,
07:44founded the theory of emotional
07:46intelligence with my doctoral advisor,
07:48whose name is Jack Mayer.
07:50And that was back in 1990.
07:52They had this idea that people
07:55could use their feelings wisely,
07:57that there was there were certain
08:00people in the world who they were
08:03just slightly more aware of their
08:06emotions and more capable of using them
08:08wisely to achieve their goals in life.
08:11And there had not been a concept
08:14named for that phenomenon.
08:15And so they coined the term
08:17emotional intelligence.
08:19Many of you know that's,
08:20that's 35 years ago now.
08:22Actually just wrote an article about this
08:24with 35 years of emotional intelligence.
08:26What have we learned?
08:28And we've learned a lot.
08:30What I will say is that we've learned a lot,
08:32but we have an implementation problem.
08:35And what I mean by that is that we
08:39haven't figured out really based on,
08:41and you're going to hear this
08:43from Chris and James as well,
08:44really how to bring these
08:46concepts into families,
08:48into school systems in
08:49some ways where they stick.
08:51And same thing for corporations,
08:54lots of reasons for that.
08:56We won't go into that right now.
08:57But so we have this thing,
09:00this concept that we call emotional
09:03intelligence and we define it now through
09:05our centers work as five key skills.
09:08We call them the ruler skills.
09:10So the first is recognizing emotions.
09:12So for example,
09:13I'm looking at my colleagues facial
09:16expressions right now and trying to
09:17figure out like what's what are they feeling?
09:20And is it,
09:21it's hard to do that.
09:23It's hard to do that because not
09:26everybody shows emotions the same way.
09:28We have cultural differences.
09:30We've got family background that
09:32influences our perception of emotion.
09:33We've got our own stuff in our own heads,
09:36right,
09:36that we project onto other people
09:39as we're reading their feelings.
09:41Children in particular,
09:43those of you who have children know that,
09:46you know they're good at masking
09:47their feelings.
09:48They don't necessarily want you
09:49to know how they're feeling,
09:51and there's a variety of reasons
09:53for that as well.
09:54Then there's the understanding of emotion,
09:56like why do we feel the way we feel?
10:00What makes us feel angry versus elated
10:03versus disappointed versus frustrated?
10:05In our research,
10:06what we find is that a lot of people
10:09just don't understand their feelings.
10:11They don't know why they
10:12feel the way they do.
10:14They're not even sure what they're feeling.
10:16My best example was here at Yale.
10:20Just I think this is a great example,
10:22which is all my students were
10:24saying they were stressed.
10:26And I asked them then to journal about the
10:29things that were making them feel stressed.
10:32And what I learned was that, you know,
10:34we define stress as in the kind of the
10:36distress way of thinking about it,
10:38that we have a lot of demands and
10:40we have not a lot of resources to
10:42kind of deal with those demands.
10:45Anxiety would be about uncertainty,
10:47overwhelmed as when you're
10:49saturated with your feelings.
10:51But anyhow, when they journaled about it
10:53and then we analyzed the qualitative data,
10:56what we found was that the number
10:59one emotion was envy that they were
11:03really experiencing quite a bit of
11:04envy that they were calling stress.
11:06Now, I guess you could imagine that
11:08feeling envious might cause you stress,
11:10but the point is, what do you,
11:13you know, the,
11:14the strategies that maybe the counseling
11:16center or even a psychologist might
11:19provide that teenager or young adult
11:21to deal with stress might not be the
11:23strategies that work best to deal with envy,
11:26right?
11:26So envy, right, when you think about it,
11:28is, you know, this perception that,
11:31you know,
11:32everybody's got something better than I have.
11:33You know,
11:35it's not so much always about resentment,
11:37although it could be.
11:38And So what happens is the
11:40students are sitting around
11:41thinking like this mother this,
11:43this my friend's mother is more
11:46successful than my mother.
11:47This person's father makes
11:49more money than my father.
11:50This mother has more connections
11:52than my mother.
11:53And so they're sitting with a brain
11:56that is activated by social comparison.
11:59And the question is,
12:00what do we do to support that person
12:03in reframing or maybe having more
12:07gratitude because there's not much
12:09you can do about the fact that some
12:11people are richer than you are or have
12:13a better connection than you have.
12:15And so point is,
12:16is that the work that we do at our center,
12:19especially for children,
12:21is helping the adults who are raising
12:24and teaching children build their
12:27emotional intelligence skills so they
12:29can support children's healthy development.
12:31Meaning that we want to help the
12:34adults understand their feelings and
12:35have the language to describe feelings
12:38accurately so they can work with
12:40children to help them build their vocabulary.
12:43The E in Ruler is about expressing emotions.
12:47This is an interesting piece of
12:49emotional intelligence because it's
12:50about knowing how and when to express
12:52our feelings with different people
12:54across culture, across context.
12:57So for example,
12:58Ruler is in 27 countries.
13:01Now we're more seriously in four countries.
13:05We're in a lot of schools in Italy
13:07and Spain and Central and South
13:09America and in over in China.
13:11And so, right,
13:12the rules are different how we greet people,
13:15right?
13:15When I go to China, you know,
13:18or Korea, people bow to me.
13:20Mark Sun, right, nice to meet you.
13:23People don't do that in Italy,
13:25right, right. In Italy,
13:26there's a line to give lots of
13:29kisses and that's the norm there.
13:32There's a norm here.
13:32There's a norm in New York City.
13:34There's a there's different norms everywhere.
13:36And I think, importantly,
13:39often times we think about there being a
13:44criteria or criterion of correctness, right?
13:47So I grew up in northern New Jersey and in
13:51a very kind of white Irish Catholic area.
13:54I'm Jewish.
13:55And so like my family values and the
13:57things that we talked about at home
13:59were not the things I experienced
14:01in school or in my surroundings.
14:03I also was only exposed mostly in
14:06my childhood to people who are
14:09white Irish Catholics.
14:10And so my development of my social
14:13and emotional skills, right,
14:15is for lack of a better way,
14:17it's kind of baked in that
14:19environment and without,
14:20you know,
14:21then I went to Korea as AI
14:23teach martial arts.
14:23And so I went over to South Korea and my when
14:26I was 17 years old and I was sort of like,
14:28I don't know, you know,
14:31how to behavior like the world.
14:33It just was so different.
14:34The way people operated,
14:35the way they touched people,
14:36the way they spoke, the eye contact.
14:39And so my point here is that
14:42given that New Haven, you know,
14:45is quite multicultural,
14:46right, we may,
14:47we wouldn't we want to be mindful that,
14:49you know,
14:49how we express emotions is not
14:51necessarily the way everybody
14:52else expresses emotions.
14:53We might be misreading people based on
14:56norms that are part of their culture
14:57that we don't actually identify with.
14:59And then the final skill,
15:03which is the one that I think everybody
15:05writes to our center about getting
15:08support for is the regulation.
15:09So what do we do with these
15:12feelings in terms of managing them,
15:15in terms of regulating them?
15:18And I'll just stop.
15:19I know I have about another minute,
15:21which is
15:24I've thought a lot about this
15:26obviously in in my work.
15:27And I think the first strategy is that
15:31we have to give ourselves what I call
15:34permission to feel that we automatically,
15:37many of us stand in judgement like this is a,
15:41Oh my God, anxiety is bad.
15:42I, you know, I shouldn't have anxiety.
15:44I should get rid of my anxiety.
15:45I should try to find that area of
15:48my amygdala and get a lobotomy,
15:50a lobotomy, you know,
15:51pull this cortex out so I don't
15:52have to feel of these feelings or,
15:54or deal with them.
15:57That's pretty hard to do.
15:59And so I think part of our development is
16:03a understanding that these are feelings,
16:06nothing more than feelings,
16:09and they are ephemeral.
16:11They come and go.
16:13Sometimes they're stronger than other times,
16:15but the experience of emotion
16:17is what makes us human.
16:19And then if we can just accept that and
16:22be with our feelings as opposed to trying
16:24to get rid of our unpleasant feelings,
16:27that alone might be helpful.
16:29And then of course there are
16:31many other strategies like being
16:32clear about how you're feeling,
16:34labeling feelings.
16:35That in and of itself is a
16:38strategy to regulate.
16:39James will talk about mindfulness
16:41and other forms of meditation and
16:43and factors that support well-being.
16:45So there's cognitive strategies
16:47to shift our thinking.
16:49Social support is a big strategy
16:52for dealing with feelings,
16:54doing things you enjoy,
16:56like taking a nice walk.
16:57I was, I wrote a letter to our team,
16:59this one.
16:59And like it is gorgeous outside.
17:01Give yourself the permission to
17:03take a 5 minute walk outside,
17:05just look at the sun, 5 minutes,
17:07make a phone call and and I'll stop there
17:10and then we'll come back for questions.
17:12So I'm going to turn it over
17:14to James Fullman,
17:15who has been doing a lot of work
17:17in our center on building will be
17:19interventions and measurement of that stuff.
17:22So over to you,
17:24James.
17:25Thanks, Mark. Hi everyone.
17:28Good morning, good afternoon.
17:32So today I think I'm going to zoom
17:34out a little bit and start with
17:36what do we mean by well-being and
17:38cover different dimensions of
17:40well-being because it's multifaceted.
17:42And then we will talk about
17:44ways of supporting well-being.
17:46And I can talk about mindfulness
17:47specifically to some extent.
17:49I'm happy to answer questions about that.
17:51And then I also wanted to provide
17:53some practical tips on how to
17:55actually build healthy habits of mine,
17:57because sometimes we hear an idea or
17:59a strategy and it seems helpful and
18:01useful and it's kind of on a list.
18:03Or maybe we do it once and then
18:04it kind of vanishes and doesn't
18:06become a durable habit.
18:07And I think that's kind of where the
18:09science itself is a little bit stuck.
18:10There are some insights on what to do,
18:13but I don't think they've
18:14been translated too well yet.
18:15So I'm hoping to cover those
18:18different components today.
18:20So what do we mean by well-being?
18:23There are many models,
18:24as you can imagine,
18:25of how to understand what well-being is
18:27going back even thousands of years ago.
18:29Looking at more recent modern psychology,
18:33we typically break it down into 3
18:36core dimensions and one is called
18:38emotional or hedonic well-being.
18:39And that's mostly what Mark
18:41was talking about,
18:42which is how do we find a
18:43balance within our emotions.
18:45So the goal isn't to get
18:47rid of negative emotions.
18:48They are useful, they exist for a reason,
18:50they're important.
18:51But when you have really intense
18:53negative emotions and you're
18:55experiencing them very frequently
18:57and they interfere with your quality
18:58of life and your ability to function
19:00in different areas of your life,
19:01then you might have a bit of an
19:03imbalance there with your emotions
19:05on the other side.
19:06It's important to cultivate
19:08a range of positive emotions,
19:09some of which were mentioned
19:10in the chat earlier.
19:11Hope, excitement, curiosity.
19:12It's a lot of interesting
19:14research on the positive effects,
19:16physical and mental, of positive emotions.
19:19And then actually just experiencing
19:21more positive affect helps us
19:23build connections with each other,
19:24have insights, be more creative,
19:27and it can generate things that
19:28are more durable,
19:29even just a temporary increase
19:31in positive emotions.
19:32And so that's the general idea there
19:34for emotional well-being, though.
19:36Happy to unpack that.
19:38The second domain is sometimes
19:41called eudemonic well-being,
19:43which is really about having a sense
19:45of meaning and purpose in your life.
19:47And it's important to distinguish that
19:50from emotional well-being because
19:51you can have one and not the other,
19:53or you can have both or neither.
19:57For example,
19:57we work with educators a lot and they
19:59tend to be quite high on meeting and purpose.
20:02They believe in the work that they're doing.
20:03They want to foster healthy
20:05developmental trajectories and
20:07the kids they're working with,
20:09but they may be really stressed
20:10out and not sleeping and finding
20:12no time to practice well-being
20:14strategies for themselves.
20:15And so they may have high
20:16sense of meaning and
20:17purpose, but lower emotional well-being.
20:19And we see that a lot in our work.
20:21But of course,
20:22it could go the other way around.
20:23Where you're maybe working a job where it's
20:26more laid back and you feel more relaxed,
20:28but you may not have that sense of
20:30mission or that you're connected to
20:32something greater than yourself.
20:33And both tend to be important to
20:37live a a fully satisfying life.
20:40And the last piece is social well-being
20:43because we're hyper social creatures,
20:46feeling safe with other people,
20:49which is really important,
20:51supported, trusted, connected.
20:54That alone is essential to
20:56every other form of well-being.
20:57And it's hard to have the other
20:59forms of well-being if social
21:00well-being isn't there.
21:03And so this is something that we
21:05actually targeted in a study that
21:07we did at Yale a couple years ago,
21:09which was to look at contemplative
21:11based practices where you cultivate
21:13compassion and kindness in a sense of
21:16connectedness to each other to help
21:18actually increase social well-being
21:19directly to see if it then had an
21:22effect on the other forms of well-being.
21:23And there is some good evidence
21:25that that is the case.
21:27So those are the three areas of well-being,
21:29emotional well-being,
21:31meaning and purpose and social connection.
21:34One thing I'll also note in
21:36terms of what well-being is,
21:38is the context specificity.
21:40Mark alluded to this.
21:41So there of course are cultural differences,
21:43but even within one's own life,
21:46you may have strong social
21:48well-being at home but not at work.
21:50You may have meeting in purpose at work,
21:52but not at home.
21:53And same goes for emotional well-being.
21:55So those different dimensions of
21:57well-being can vary depending on what
21:59part of your life we're talking about.
22:01So as we get to what you might
22:04do to cultivate well-being,
22:05it's important to think about
22:07that those layers of complexity.
22:08Where in my life might I want to develop
22:11one form of this well-being that I covered?
22:15And it helps to,
22:16to be a little bit more focused on
22:17what you want to develop rather
22:19than thinking that you want to just
22:21develop all of them all of the time
22:24'cause that's not as effective.
22:27So that's, that's the framing of well-being.
22:30And in terms of how to cultivate well-being,
22:32this of course has been studied pretty
22:35extensively in psychology over the years.
22:37So I will know.
22:39Historically,
22:39we've mostly focused on pathology
22:42and psychological illness and it's
22:44only more recently that we focus
22:45more on well-being and cultivating
22:47flourishing and life satisfaction
22:50and positive emotions and connection.
22:52And so I'm gonna focus more on
22:56that component,
22:57acknowledging the historical context there.
23:00One other thing I wanna say actually,
23:03which we were talking about
23:05earlier is there is this culture,
23:08at least in the US, of a quick fix.
23:10You know, you take a pill,
23:12you flip a switch, you,
23:13you hit a,
23:14a button on your phone and things
23:16are supposed to be there.
23:17And as technology develops,
23:18we just things get a lot of things
23:21have gotten easier and there
23:23are benefits of that ease.
23:25But without having patience for engaging
23:27in something deep and meaningful,
23:30it's hard to build skills.
23:31So you can think of this as stress.
23:33There's an immediate stress relief,
23:35which, which is important.
23:36Sometimes you need to eat the cookie.
23:38Take a deep breath.
23:40Whatever short term strategies
23:41may work for you,
23:43but developing actual skills that
23:45will carry you through a range
23:47of situations is really what we
23:49focus on at our center and are,
23:51are hoping to do.
23:52So for folks who don't prioritize
23:54well-being or if there's various
23:56pressures that make that difficult,
23:58starting with basic stress
24:00relief can help as a starting
24:02point. But I, I just want to emphasize
24:04that there's a whole other layer there
24:06of turning this into a practice,
24:08something you're doing actually on a
24:10daily basis to cultivate well-being.
24:12well-being is sort of like a verb.
24:13It's something we do.
24:14It's not something that just kind
24:16of appears or happens to us.
24:17And it, and it isn't easy.
24:19It does take time,
24:20but it is something that can be developed.
24:25And so I can say a few words about
24:28mindfulness and then I'm going
24:30to get to some tips about how
24:32to form a healthy habit. So my,
24:35there's many definitions of mindfulness.
24:37And what I would say is it's the
24:40basic ideas that you take time to be
24:43fully present with where you are.
24:45And whatever is coming up for you,
24:47positive, negative, neutral,
24:48whatever range of feelings
24:50or thoughts you're having,
24:52is that you sit and try to be present
24:54with them and you try to accept
24:56them in an open and curious way.
24:58The present component is difficult
24:59enough for most of us who are kind of
25:02bouncing around from one thing to the next,
25:04but then being there in a way will
25:06work kind and curious to our own mind,
25:09even if things are coming up that
25:12are challenging. That's the idea.
25:13So the idea of what my influence is
25:16actually isn't that complicated to say.
25:18But it's very difficult to do
25:20as you can imagine,
25:21if you just sit for 5 minutes
25:23and notice all the different
25:24thoughts that come up for yourself.
25:26And one technique that I'll I'll
25:29mention briefly is labeling.
25:30And this actually overlaps with
25:32what we do with ruler as well.
25:34So say envy,
25:35which is an example Mark mentioned,
25:37comes up when you're sitting there and
25:38you notice that you're envying something,
25:41say that your neighbor has,
25:42you may notice what that is.
25:44Label it as envy.
25:46Be curious about why you feel that way,
25:48and then kind of let it go off on its own.
25:51And similar things can happen
25:52with thoughts as well.
25:53So maybe you notice you're judging
25:55yourself or someone else and you
25:57can label that judgment or self
25:58judgment and recognize that that's a
26:00pattern and just be curious about it.
26:02So you're kind of like an emotion scientist,
26:05right? And a scientist of your own mind.
26:06You're curious about what's coming
26:08up and you're labeling it.
26:09And it seems simple,
26:10but it gives you a little bit of what
26:13we call psychological distance and it makes,
26:15it takes the sting out of it.
26:16And we feel a little bit less wrapped
26:18up in the specific feeling or thought.
26:21We realize those are things that
26:22are happening that are coming up,
26:24but they're not who we are.
26:26They're just a piece of mental
26:29activity that you can know,
26:31understand the pattern and try to let it go.
26:33So we're not just bouncing around from
26:35thought to thought, emotion to motion.
26:37So there's a little more
26:39intentionality with how we carry
26:41ourselves throughout our day.
26:42And so the last piece is
26:45forming healthy habits.
26:46There are actually a number
26:48of tips and tricks here.
26:50I'm happy to share a sheet here that I've
26:54summarized for folks who are interested.
26:57So one is being intentional and
26:58I kind of said that already.
27:00So trying to build an actual well-being
27:02routine or practice for yourself.
27:04You know, most people,
27:06they brush their teeth,
27:07right? That's not something they
27:08have to kind of remember to do.
27:09We just do it. We weren't born doing it,
27:11but we learned to do it.
27:12And we often take better care of
27:14our teeth than we do of our own,
27:15our minds, right?
27:16And so try to set an intention
27:19that would do something every day,
27:21even if it's very small,
27:23even if it's only a minute of gratitude
27:25or going for a walk, like you said,
27:27Mark I reading a poem, something.
27:28And those little bits over time can
27:31aggregate and start to create a momentum
27:34that leads to a change over time.
27:36I'll just mention one or two other
27:38things and then I'll pass it along.
27:40Settings incremental goals.
27:41So you can have those little goals,
27:43but as it picks up momentum,
27:45it's OK to have slightly
27:47more ambitious goals,
27:47but I wouldn't start very ambitious,
27:49which is often what we do when
27:51we want to change our behavior.
27:52We get very motivated and we want
27:54to make big changes and it often
27:56backfires because it takes time
27:57to make these changes and we want
27:59to have some wins along the way.
28:01The last thing I'll mention here
28:03is having a well-being buddy
28:05can be really helpful.
28:07So someone that you do
28:09well-being activities with,
28:11whether it's exercise or meditation or
28:13reading poetry together or whatever
28:16strategies that work for you,
28:18having that interaction magnifies
28:20the effects of the activity.
28:22And it also creates a social accountability.
28:25So you check in with each other and
28:27see how the other person's doing.
28:30And it helps to,
28:31to motivate 1 to engage in these
28:33behaviors where it's kind of
28:35easy for us to rationalize, oh,
28:36I'm too busy, I can't do it today.
28:37But if you have a friend who says,
28:39well, come on, you know,
28:40we're doing this every Friday,
28:41you know,
28:42this is this is important and that can help.
28:45So I will pause there and pass
28:46it off to Doctor Cipriano.
28:52Great. Thank you so much, James.
28:54Thanks, Mark. This is so fun to
28:56be here with you all today to
28:57talk about the power of emotions.
28:59I'm going to bring us
29:00into the school context.
29:01And I was taking notes as Mark and
29:03James were speaking to try to help
29:04us to thread it all together as
29:06well as we think about the science.
29:08Just by way of introduction,
29:09I'm an associate professor here at Yale.
29:11I use she, her pronouns.
29:12I direct a lab called the Education
29:15Collaboratory where we work to
29:16advance the science of learning and
29:18social and emotional development.
29:20And so I'm going to really focus
29:22our attention into school based
29:24social emotional learning,
29:26what that means and how what the
29:28evidence is for it so that we can
29:30support to provide students with these
29:32Tier 1 universal strategies to thrive.
29:35Within our lab,
29:36we have three main areas of work.
29:39And I,
29:39I'll drop some chats after I drop some
29:41notes in the chat after I'm done talking.
29:44I can't type and talk at the same time.
29:45But I wanted to first say that
29:48everything that we do is free
29:50and open source and available.
29:51So any of the science that I share
29:53with you have access to within that.
29:56We first center the experience of
29:58marginalized youth and educators in
30:00their school based social emotional learning.
30:03And when I say marginalized,
30:04I'm speaking about the intersections
30:06of identity at race, class,
30:08gender, sexuality and disability.
30:10The second area of work is advancing
30:12the science of evidence synthesis.
30:14So what do we understand and what do we
30:16know about the ways in which kids are
30:19learning and feeling and thriving in school?
30:21And the third is the Co construction
30:23of novel data points to help schools
30:26tell their implementation journeys.
30:27This is Mark mentioned earlier.
30:29You're on this afternoon,
30:31right?
30:31We have a lot of room to grow here and
30:33thinking about the ways in which people
30:35are implementing these practices so
30:37that we can help to inform best practice.
30:39And again, that's at the Education
30:41Collaboratory at Yale.
30:43So when I use the term social
30:45and emotional learning,
30:46what I'm referring to is an
30:48interrelated set of cognitive,
30:49effective,
30:50and behavioral skills and strategies
30:52that under score how we learn.
30:55So they under score the human
30:57condition and being able to develop
30:59and maintain mutually supportive
31:01relationships and help kids and
31:04all people to be healthy both
31:06physically and psychologically.
31:07There's lots of different ways
31:09to think about the understanding
31:11of a broader social emotional
31:13supports in kids and adults.
31:14Prior research had found over 700
31:17different types of competencies or
31:19constructs there within the work at
31:21our lab has documented over 4000.
31:23So there's many different ways
31:24and terms that get used when we
31:27think about social and behavioral
31:29skills that we can teach kids
31:31and adults across the lifespan.
31:32But most often folks organize
31:34them into A5 factor model.
31:36So we're talking about things
31:37that have been coming up
31:39throughout this time together today
31:40of self-awareness, self management,
31:42social awareness, relationship skills
31:44and responsible decision making.
31:46And to situate that EI that Mark
31:48was talking about at the beginning,
31:50emotional intelligence is kind of one cluster
31:53of skill sets within this broader model.
31:56And similarly as James was
31:58just talking about at the end,
31:59the mindfulness based literature is
32:01another cluster of skills and strategies.
32:04Both of these clusters share what we
32:06would refer to as intra and interpersonal
32:08competencies in what we develop,
32:10understanding of self and understanding
32:12of others in our engagement with them.
32:15But there are a huge range of different
32:18types and skills and strategies that can
32:20be looked at in in how we think about
32:23child development and how we understand
32:25school based mental health supports.
32:27So most recently our lab undertook
32:30a large scale meta analysis where we
32:32did a review of all of the research
32:35available to date contemporarily of
32:37what is the evidence for efficacy
32:39in school based social emotional
32:41supports to support students to thrive.
32:43And I just wanted to share some
32:45kind of high level,
32:45like big findings for you.
32:47In looking at over 400 studies,
32:50over 200 different explicit SEL
32:54program representing over 50 countries
32:57and over a decade of literature,
32:59we report robust overwhelming
33:01evidence of the effectiveness of
33:03social emotional learning at scale
33:06and supporting youth to thrive.
33:08And when I use the term RIVE,
33:10I want to put some some context around that.
33:13So when I'm saying thrive first,
33:15I'm saying we have evidence that students
33:18who participate in SEL do better at school,
33:21right?
33:21So first and foremost,
33:22we're talking about improvements
33:24in academic achievement,
33:25and that's in both GPA and test scores,
33:28as well as things like homework completion,
33:30on task behavior, engagement and learning.
33:33And of course, you know,
33:33those SEL skills and attitudes to to what
33:36Mark and James were speaking to earlier.
33:38And you know, as a parent myself,
33:39I have 4, I'm blessed,
33:41have four beautiful children.
33:42There's a lot of discourse nationally
33:44right now about parents rights and the
33:46ways you know what we want for all our
33:48kids and we think about the purpose
33:50of school and the opportunity thrive.
33:52The idea that SCL promotes an investment
33:54in their academic thriving as well
33:56they're doing well in school is really
33:58something we can potentially all agree on.
34:00In addition to that,
34:02students who participate in SCL
34:04have healthier behaviors at school.
34:06So that's increased pro sociality,
34:09so they're better at making friends
34:11and maintaining friendships.
34:12There's also increases in their
34:14civic attitudes and behaviors and
34:17showed significant reductions
34:19in aggression and bullying.
34:21Once more,
34:22students who participate in SDL
34:24programs actually feel better.
34:25And you know here we are having this
34:28panel in mental health awareness month.
34:30Our data shows that students who
34:32participate in explicit instruction
34:33of these skills and strategies show
34:36reductions in anxiety, overall stress,
34:39reductions in their depressive
34:41symptoms and suicide suicidality.
34:43And lastly,
34:44students who participate in
34:46SDL programs also feel
34:48safer at school, and that safety is defined
34:51by things like being more connected,
34:53included reductions in
34:55bullying and victimization,
34:57increases in their school climate,
35:00and better relationships with both
35:02their peers and their teachers.
35:05So there really is a robust,
35:07overwhelming amount of evidence
35:08for the effectiveness SCL and it
35:10potentially couldn't come at a
35:12more important time when we think
35:13about what we know about the mental
35:15health crisis among youth in the US,
35:17right, 70% of adolescents are having
35:20challenges with their mental health,
35:23experiencing internalizing and
35:24externalizing symptomology as a result.
35:27We also know that schools are woefully
35:29unprepared to meet that need right now.
35:32And as a school based researcher,
35:33this is something I'm intimately involved in.
35:36In the United States,
35:38nearly 80% of youth are asking
35:40for more support at their school.
35:4360% of public schools in the US
35:45currently report an increase and
35:47requests for mental health and
35:49social behavioral support services
35:50of the school from their students.
35:53Yes, 50.
35:54Less than 50% of schools actually
35:56feel like they can meet the needs of
35:58their students right now in real time.
36:01There's a significant gap and
36:02it's really more of a crater in
36:04our opportunities here to help
36:06the support schools to meet the
36:07needs of students where they are.
36:09And I want to just drill down that
36:12actually currently in the United States,
36:14only one state has the recommended
36:16number of school psychologists to
36:19students available, and that's Idaho,
36:21in case anyone was wondering.
36:22So we have a large amount of
36:24large room to grow.
36:25And I could drop some links to,
36:26to find out some more about that in the chat.
36:28Thereafter.
36:28I wanted to make a couple of more
36:31quick comments based on time here
36:33regarding some things that my
36:34colleagues had said in addition.
36:36So Mark mentioned the differences
36:39and students affective experiences
36:40or people's affective experiences
36:43and talking about it from a
36:44cross cultural component.
36:45And I want to ground us in two truths, right?
36:48So two truths.
36:49One, people vary.
36:50Students vary at the intersections of their
36:53identity and how they experience emotion and
36:55the ways in which they choose to regulate.
36:58That's helpful and useful to them.
37:00So variability is the norm
37:01and not the exception, right,
37:03as Mark was introducing earlier.
37:05And secondly, how we respond to students,
37:08how we respond to that
37:10variability also varies.
37:11We as adults respond very differently.
37:13I can think about that from the ways in
37:15which my 4 beautifully diverse children,
37:18neuro diverse children, the ways in
37:19which they engage and I respond to them,
37:21to how teachers engage in classrooms,
37:23the diversity of their classroom,
37:24to how families engage and clinicians
37:27engage in hospital settings.
37:29So we must,
37:30we must honor that variability as a norm.
37:32And then the second, oh,
37:33am I at time here at Linda?
37:35Is that a note on that?
37:36I see your hand.
37:37OK,
37:37well,
37:37maybe I'll leave that there and we could talk
37:39a bit more about emotion
37:40thereafter. Thank you so much.
37:43Thank you so much.
37:46So we're now open to questions and Mark,
37:52maybe I can turn the first
37:54question to you is basically why
37:57is labeling emotion so critical?
38:05Did you hear the question? Mark,
38:07you're on mute. Sorry,
38:08I was talking to myself over
38:10mute after four years of
38:14what I was saying was that I like to think
38:18of self-awareness as a gift that you know,
38:22we humans deserve to know how to
38:29articulate clearly our experiences.
38:32And we have language for so many things,
38:35like if you're a mathematician,
38:36if you are a scientist,
38:38like we can talk about meta analysis
38:41and correlation coefficients,
38:42but can we talk about how we feel
38:45and can we communicate clearly
38:47the experiences that we're having?
38:49And what I think having language
38:50helps with are a number of things.
38:53The 1st is a just like I can share with
38:56you if I feel safe and comfortable,
38:58Linda, I'm feeling sad,
38:59I'm feeling disappointed.
39:00I'm excited.
39:03That also gives you information on what my
39:06needs might be so that you can support me.
39:09And then personally,
39:11it helps me kind of guide my strategy.
39:14And so best example I have, you know,
39:18I remember when the pandemic
39:19hit and we're here we are.
39:20We're like, I just remember that first week
39:22when our child study center shut down.
39:24We were doing virtual meetings.
39:26We were spraying our groceries with Windex.
39:28And I remember sitting, I had made a lot.
39:31I have an, a bedroom.
39:32I made that light my Home Office.
39:33I'm trying to run a team meeting.
39:36The stock market is crashing, right?
39:38And I just remember like,
39:41like just really not knowing what to do.
39:43And I was like, well, how am I feeling?
39:44Am I?
39:45I'm not stressed really.
39:47I was just completely overwhelmed
39:49and saturated.
39:50Like so many things going on in my
39:52head about what how to manage a team,
39:54how to manage myself.
39:55My mother-in-law was trapped
39:56in my house with me.
39:58And so that kind of awareness
40:01just made me realize, like, Mark,
40:04you have no control over the pandemic.
40:06Like you have no control over Yale's policies
40:08around shutting down because of COVID.
40:10So you do have control over,
40:12you know, what you do with your,
40:14you know how you manage,
40:15you know your experience and
40:17how you can support your team.
40:19And so that clarity,
40:21I think helps guide you to an action plan.
40:27If I may just add,
40:28there's a really interesting finding
40:30that supports what Mark's talking about,
40:32which we can attach and share out.
40:36They've looked at how the brain responds
40:39to stress and how labeling works.
40:41And when you use a general affective label,
40:44it works only a little bit.
40:46But when you use a specific word
40:48like disgusted, feared, anger,
40:50or whatever emotion you're labeling,
40:52you actually see differential
40:54activation and emotional brain networks
40:56and you can see actual the down
40:59regulation happen more efficiently.
41:01And so we know that these general
41:03ideas are actually taking root in the
41:05Physiology of how we respond to stress,
41:07which is interesting to see.
41:12Chris, maybe you could
41:17maybe you could actually address the
41:18converse of what we're talking about.
41:20Lately in the media, there's been a lot
41:22that's been questioning the efficacy
41:24of putting in mental health supports
41:27and talking about emotions in schools.
41:30It's just actually quite a
41:32bit in the media about it.
41:34What, how, what would you say about
41:37both the publicization of school based
41:39mental health and what we, what we know,
41:41what we still don't know and,
41:43and what, what should we do?
41:46Absolutely. And I welcome this to be a,
41:48a question that we could
41:49have some dialogue about.
41:50And I, I saw there was also a
41:52question from the audience that came
41:54in that that gets at this a little
41:56bit of kind of understanding some
41:57of that nuance that's built in.
41:59And you know, Mark set off the tone
42:01today with sharing with us that we
42:03have a lot of room to grow in the
42:05implementation and understanding how
42:07these practices are being embedded.
42:09And James talked about the, well,
42:11maybe sometimes we just want a
42:13quick fix or something that's brief
42:14intervention that we can engage in.
42:16But we really do have some opportunities
42:19here to build out the ways in which
42:21we're helping to support humans to
42:24grow across the lifespan in embodying
42:26these skills and context that
42:28they're meaningful and malleable.
42:29Where these programs and these approaches
42:32fall short and where they open up
42:34that window or that Achilles heel in
42:36many ways to kind of raise questions,
42:38which is something that the media
42:40has been pulling in has been both
42:42on the the match between the what
42:45is being taught and the contextual
42:47or cultural factors of the space
42:49in which it's being shared.
42:51So we want to make sure that we're
42:53not proliferating any sort of like
42:55right way to feel or right way to
42:58regulate or manage that emotion
43:00and rather recognize that both
43:02pleasant and unpleasant emotions
43:04provide us with helpful information,
43:06which both of my colleagues were speaking
43:08to to help to grow through and grow with.
43:11Now, importantly within that,
43:13even though we know we're in
43:15the context of a,
43:16you know,
43:17an unprecedented national mental
43:18health crisis among youth,
43:19we know there's increasing pressures for
43:22youth to internalize their negative and
43:25their unpleasant emotional experiences.
43:27And we also know adolescents are
43:29more likely during that time of
43:31emotional maturity to experience more
43:33unpleasant than pleasant emotions.
43:34Like developmentally at that time,
43:37hyper focusing on unpleasant emotions,
43:40right,
43:41gives those unpleasant emotions
43:43too much power.
43:44Like we can all agree on that,
43:46but not teaching adolescents
43:48how to navigate the range of
43:50increasingly complex emotions,
43:53unpleasant or pleasant,
43:54will leave them powerless.
43:56And that is a nuance that I'm I
43:58appreciate the opportunity to get
44:00to bring forth in our panel today.
44:02That is not necessarily getting met
44:04met with the kind of like right
44:06framing in the media right now.
44:08And so we really need to be mindful
44:10of the ways in which we're messaging
44:12and supporting youth to develop
44:14skills and strategies that are
44:16productive and helpful for their help.
44:20I can just jump in just to
44:22jump in Mark these two, because
44:24I think Chris made some really important
44:27points and the the list can go on, right.
44:30In terms of like the challenges here
44:35firstly, but we have to just acknowledge
44:37that no matter what a what a child's age is,
44:39they're coming to school with feelings.
44:41This is, you know, whether it's from
44:43like being made fun of on the bus,
44:45whether it's about who am
44:46I sitting next to at lunch,
44:47whether it's about how am I going to
44:49perform in math and science and sports.
44:51I mean, kids or feelings people.
44:54We could decide to ignore that information,
44:57which we know doesn't have the best outcomes,
44:59or we can decide to kind of use
45:02that information and support
45:03them and using it wisely.
45:05And going back to the political
45:06controversy here, I think, you know,
45:08one of the things that, you know,
45:11somebody who has a big voice now has
45:13said is like this is about therapy.
45:16And, you know,
45:17I think that can be that can go.
45:19And we want to be careful.
45:21Teachers are not therapists, right?
45:22Teachers are teachers.
45:23They're not trained to be
45:25counselors or clinicians.
45:26And so making sure that they're
45:28properly educated in boundaries,
45:30right in understanding the
45:32implementation of this work,
45:35helping the child focus on the feelings
45:37they're having in the classroom about
45:38what they're learning about and
45:40helping them manage those feelings as
45:42opposed to trying to like pry what's
45:43happening at home and getting to that,
45:45you know, you know,
45:46that that is not necessarily the
45:48right thing for someone to do.
45:50And that, that, that,
45:51and I just,
45:52I think that we have to acknowledge
45:56the complexity of the work and
45:59just embrace that complexity that,
46:01you know,
46:02there are things that we teach people
46:04that are simpler and then there are
46:05things like how to deal with your
46:08emotions across your development.
46:09And it just is more complicated.
46:11So that just means we just need to
46:13provide a better education for people
46:14and better supports for people.
46:16It doesn't mean we don't do it.
46:17It means that we put more energy into it.
46:22Thank you, Mark.
46:22James, there's the question
46:24in the question and answer,
46:25but let me summarize.
46:27That basically is what is the
46:29evidence base for the impact of
46:32mindfulness or mindfulness practices?
46:33Some of that you might share in the chat,
46:35but I wonder if you might
46:36also speak to the question.
46:38Yeah, for sure.
46:40So the evidence base has grown
46:43rapidly over the last decade.
46:45There are now hundreds,
46:47perhaps thousands of studies on
46:49mindfulness now and they're actually
46:51dozens of meta analysis or reviews.
46:54So a colleague of mine who's in Madison,
46:58WI, working with Richie Davidson,
47:00who's done, who did some of
47:02the early work on mindfulness,
47:03he published a paper which we
47:05can put in the chat that was a
47:08review of the meta analysis.
47:10So it's kind of a nice overview
47:13together statistically but also
47:15narratively of what we found.
47:18And The upshot is,
47:19is mindfulness is a,
47:20is as about as good as any mental
47:24health intervention that we have.
47:26So reframing gratitude,
47:28supporting social connection,
47:31any of the different techniques
47:32that may help one work with
47:34difficult thoughts or feelings.
47:35The effects for the on the
47:36whole for people who are non
47:38clinically indicated by the way,
47:39which is an important distinction
47:41happy to talk about that
47:44are small to moderate.
47:45And this is what we see pretty
47:47consistently across psychology.
47:49Those are the effect sizes you tend
47:50to say and there are moderators.
47:52So it works more strongly
47:53for some people and others,
47:54including those who have clinical
47:56indications, they may benefit more.
47:57And there of course are a
47:59wide range of mechanisms,
48:01which is a whole other question maybe
48:03we can address some other time.
48:04But it, it is effective.
48:07But I will say that there
48:10are many pathways in.
48:11So I think people,
48:12the idea of what my influence is,
48:14is that you're on a cushion or on a
48:16mountaintop focusing on your breath.
48:18And that's fine.
48:19And that works well for some people,
48:20but there are so many ways to
48:22engage is you're cultivating a
48:24complex state of mind and there
48:26are many ways to get there.
48:27So my favorite way personally to
48:30practice mindfulness is to spend
48:31time in nature and to just observe.
48:33Pick something in nature,
48:35whether it's the song of the
48:37bird or the wind in the trees
48:38and focus on that instead.
48:40You can,
48:40there's a lot of mindful moving practices,
48:42yoga, Tai chi, for example.
48:45And so I encourage people to be
48:47creative and flexible with the
48:49different ways they try to practice
48:50to see if something works for them.
48:52And if it doesn't work right away,
48:55don't necessarily give up.
48:57Try something else.
48:58Try,
48:58try to find a well-being buddy,
48:59maybe someone who's done it
49:01a little bit more,
49:01who has some experience and
49:03try to practice together.
49:04And that also adds a whole other layer to it.
49:07But the evidence base overall
49:08suggests that it can be as
49:10effective as any of the other
49:12interventions out there.
49:14James, just want to add one thing, Linda.
49:16You know, I think I forget the term
49:19that you used James earlier, you know,
49:21like when you're brushing your teeth,
49:23you know, in the other formation literature,
49:24they talk about stacking and I've
49:26become a really big fan of that.
49:28You know, you know,
49:29in the morning when I am brushing my teeth,
49:31I may just like just pause and like
49:34take a moment to think about the
49:36self that I want to be that day.
49:39I've tried to do like,
49:40I don't know other people,
49:41but in the in the zoom world
49:42that we're living in right now,
49:44eating because it's like become
49:45a like a it's complicated.
49:47She's always in meetings and you know,
49:50you don't want to, you know,
49:51like eating, you know, you.
49:52And so I've been like forcing myself
49:55and trying to schedule just 15 minutes
49:57to just be with my food and not
49:59actually be looking at my phone and
50:01not actually be checking an e-mail.
50:03And honestly,
50:03it's like digestion feels better.
50:05You can chew more.
50:07And so applying these mindfulness
50:09principles to just little parts of
50:10your day can make a big difference.
50:13And
50:13it gets easier each time you engage
50:15in that behavior and invest in it,
50:17it becomes easier.
50:18The barrier to entry starts to
50:20diminish and it becomes more natural.
50:22Take any skill. Thank
50:24you. So Mark, actually following
50:27on what you just said,
50:32maybe it's hard to pick one skill,
50:33but let me ask you, which of the
50:35ruler skills do you think it's most
50:38critical for people to try and develop?
50:40You know, I think they're,
50:41they're a cumulative set of skills,
50:44you know, so the, you know,
50:46emotional intelligence of theory
50:47builds the skills build on one another,
50:50meaning that you,
50:51it's hard to know what to do with your
50:53feelings until you know how you're feeling.
50:55And so I put, if I, you know,
50:57people ask me this all the time,
50:58like if you were to put, you know,
50:59invest you, if you were to do an
51:01investment in emotional intelligence,
51:02where would you put your money?
51:04And I'd say it would all be in the regulation
51:07piece because it's the hardest part.
51:09You know,
51:09it's the hardest part because you know,
51:12as you think about it, you know,
51:15when we get activated, when we're stressed,
51:17when we're overwhelmed,
51:18when we get angry, all right,
51:20we go into that automatic,
51:21often times habitual way of,
51:25of reacting as opposed to being
51:28more mindful and responding.
51:31And that's a between trigger and response
51:33or stimulus and response is a lot of space.
51:36And the question is how do
51:38we fill that space?
51:39Going back to someone mentioned
51:40Viktor Frankel early on,
51:41that's where, you know,
51:43he's got a great quote around that.
51:45And I would say if I had to put
51:48my money into one strategy of
51:50all the regulation strategies,
51:51it would be around our self talk.
51:55I feel like we grew up in a society
51:58where people were you, we all,
52:00we're almost kind of gaslighted
52:02throughout our development.
52:04You're to this, you're to that,
52:07whether it's about the color of your skin,
52:09the size of your body, your nose,
52:11your hair, whatever it is,
52:13we're just there's.
52:14The world in many instances tries
52:18to define our reality for us.
52:21And my hope is that people can
52:23recognize that as early as possible
52:25and make better choices about
52:27how they speak to themselves.
52:32Thank you, ma.
52:35I'm just looking for other
52:36questions from the audience
52:39while you're looking for that,
52:40Linda, if I could kind of jump in
52:43and bring it from the adults to the
52:45kids and thinking about regulation.
52:47Some work that we've been developing
52:50and engaging with nationally
52:51over the past couple of years has
52:54been really trying to help to
52:56support in school based systems.
52:58Shifting away from the idea that
53:00there's any one particular way to
53:01regulate and that we should or,
53:03and or that it's better for kids to
53:05have lots of different strategies and
53:07move that attention in the direction
53:09of what are the most helpful ways
53:12in which anyone child can learn to
53:14regulate for them and how to use
53:16that information to kind of Dr.
53:18paths forward.
53:19And so we have a free school based
53:21tool that we've developed called the
53:23student emotion regulation assessment as
53:25a primary and secondary school version.
53:27And in this tool,
53:28youth go through a series of kind
53:30of common affective experiences or
53:32experiences of emotion at school,
53:34like, you know,
53:35anger and frustration and disappointment.
53:37And they,
53:38it builds towards a profile of
53:40regulation of how kids are choosing
53:42to regulate.
53:43And that profile goes right back
53:45to the kids so that they have,
53:47can be an agent of change.
53:48And like, you know, I really,
53:50I, I,
53:50I use peer support a lot and I use
53:52social support and the ways in which I,
53:54here's ways that I can speak to my
53:56friends and speak to my teachers
53:57and speak to my parents about it.
53:58And similarly,
53:59the adults in that child's life
54:01get a report that shows them how
54:03children are choosing and who they're
54:05choosing to regulate to again,
54:06help them to grow in that helpful
54:08and productive space.
54:09And I'll drop my e-mail in the chat
54:11and I'm happy to provide information
54:13on that to anyone who's interested.
54:16Thank
54:16you. There's one other question that's
54:18come in the question and answer that.
54:20Let me just put to the the three of you
54:23the concept of intersectionality and very
54:26curious about how we're working on culture,
54:29ethnicity and race and how that plays
54:32a role in the mental health of teens.
54:35What are we doing here at the in the
54:37Center for Emotional Intelligence
54:38and I would assume also more broadly
54:40in the Child Studies Center,
54:42but any one of you want to take up the
54:46emotional intelligence aspects of that?
54:49I think
54:49we can all speak to that because
54:52I think we all have different
54:54identities here on this call.
54:57I'm, I'm reminded of in this
55:01webcast that I've created
55:02called Dealing with Feelings,
55:04I interviewed this woman who I just love.
55:06Her name is Doctor Alfie Berlin Noble,
55:09who has done that, one of the largest
55:10studies on black mental health,
55:12black youth mental health.
55:13And when I was interviewing her,
55:15she was telling me a story about,
55:17you know, a gay black high school
55:21boy who identifies as trans
55:26going to a barbershop in Baltimore.
55:30And how, how, you know,
55:32do we understand what his experience
55:33is in terms of the code switching
55:35that he has to do in terms of his
55:37feeling like he's part of a community?
55:39And so, you know, this intersectional
55:42identity that Chris has actually done
55:44quite a lot of research on, you know,
55:47we're talking about being a man
55:50of color and identifying as trans,
55:53as two identities coming together,
55:55that that combination
55:59can make things more or less difficult
56:00for you based on where you're living
56:02and who you're interacting with.
56:07Without overly simplifying it,
56:09You know, my prayer for the world
56:12that we live in is that we just
56:16allow people to be who they are.
56:18Ultimately, that's I think the
56:20goal of this work is to support
56:22people in if we're less judgmental
56:26about people's identities and allow
56:28people to be their true selves,
56:32I think it would be less difficult
56:34for people who are struggling.
56:36If I, if I may just kind of build
56:38out a bit from that and kind of part
56:41of the theme that Mark brought up,
56:43I want to acknowledge that, you know,
56:45we know that the mental health crisis in
56:47the United States right now is inequitable.
56:49And I just like pulled up some quick stats.
56:51I'll drop the link in the chat.
56:52But it's when we look at how youth are
56:54feeling and sad at rates of sadness,
56:57sadness and hopelessness,
56:5850% of multiracial youth,
57:00nearly 60% of female youth
57:02and nearly 70% of LGBTQ youth.
57:05So really staggering increases.
57:08And we think about identity and
57:10intersectionality and the experiences
57:12of those who are doubly marginalized
57:14in a system and not having their
57:16experiences of emotion and their
57:18opportunities to feel safe and
57:19validated in the space that is
57:21in and of itself the risk factor.
57:23So if I could pull us out of the
57:25idea that we need to move from
57:27to just make this very clear,
57:29it is not the identity itself
57:31that's an adversity, right?
57:33Identity itself is not adversity.
57:34It is identity is adverse in context.
57:37So we have to shift our discussion
57:40from thinking about race to systems
57:42that are promoting racism or
57:44structures that are racist right
57:46and practices there within.
57:47So we have to move from the deficit
57:50frame of it being that youth or
57:52that experience of identity and
57:54rather the identity in context of
57:56in community that we can engage in.
57:59And the work that I dropped the
58:00link in the chat there.
58:01And our team has been doing work
58:03on this for over a decade and
58:05the experiences of centering on
58:07experiences of disability, race,
58:09class, gender,
58:09sexuality,
58:10and all of the intersections there
58:12within within the emotion science base,
58:14particularly on school based
58:16supports and opportunities to
58:18grow and evolve those practices.
58:20Thank
58:20you so much, Chris,
58:21and thanks so much to everyone.
58:23I feel like we could go on for a while,
58:26but we are we are at time.
58:28And I'm really grateful to
58:30everyone for joining this webinar
58:32and hope to see you back again.
58:35If you're interested in the Child
58:36Study Center, send us an e-mail.
58:38Thanks so much.