The American Psychological Association’s 2024 Annual Meeting took place in Seattle, WA, from August 8-10, and the Education Collaboratory was well represented!
Associate Research Scientist Dr. Zi Jia Ng presented her work in two presentations. Her first presentation, titled “How Adolescents Feel at School,” was on centered youths' voices pertaining to (1) how they actually feel at school and (2) how they want to feel at school (across grade, gender, and race) to better understand youths' emotions in school. In her second talk, co-authored with Jenny Seibyl, “Supporting Students' Emotion Regulation Development: Pros and Cons of Four Different Strategies,” Dr. Ng reviewed four emotion regulation strategies - problem-solving, emotional support-seeking, reappraisal/reframing, and rumination/repetitive thinking – providing evidence-based pros and cons for each strategy. She also discussed classroom practices/activities that support better use of each strategy.
The APA 2024 conference provided many thoughtful and impactful sessions on the science, practice, and policy for child and adolescent well-being, particularly those from marginalized communities. I was very surprised by the large turnout at my 4pm skill-building session on social and emotional learning in schools. There is immense interest in school-based preventative mental health.
Dr. Zi Jia Ng
I attended sessions on Black youth mental health, cultural factors influencing adolescent stress and coping, and leveraging social media to bridge the gap between academic research and community discourse. Through this experience, I was able to connect and network with psychologists, graduate students, and other professionals. I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn from others as well as engage in conversations about the exciting work of our lab!
Victoria Mack
Victoria Mack, a Postgraduate Associate at the Education Collaboratory, shared findings from her work on Project Flourish. Her presentation, titled “Project Flourish: Promoting Educational Equity through SEL Implementation” discussed how SEL Specialists support systematic SEL implementation and advance equity in schools. Using a case study from Project Flourish, Ms. Mack provided actionable takeaways on how SEL Specialists use a data-driven and equity-focused approach to advocate for student and educator SEL.
Ava Van Straten, an Undergraduate Research Assistant, and rising Senior at Yale, attended the conference virtually, and presented her research on “The Role of Teacher Modeling in Elementary School Social and Emotional Learning.” This study reviewed how explicit modeling in elementary school classrooms can foster SEL in elementary classrooms.
As a virtual attendee of APA, the online platform made me feel fully included in all the wonderful work being achieved in the field of psychology. Additionally, the virtual poster hall allowed me the flexibility to read and listen to many studies about topics in mental health, having such a wide range of presentations available due to the option to virtually present
Ava Van Straten
Conferences like the APA Annual Meeting provide invaluable opportunities for our lab to disseminate critical research and engage with cross disciplinary academic communities. We look forward to future presentations this fall at the Society for Research of Education Effectiveness (SREE) and CASEL SEL Exchange meetings.