Social emotional learning skills of middle school students

This research aimed to investigate the social-emotional learning skills of middle school students based on various variables. The study group consisted of middle school students attending public schools in a medium-sized province of Türkiye during the 2023-2024 academic year. The convenience sampling method was employed, and easily accessible sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade middle school students were included in the sample. Data was collected from a total of 500 students, comprising 289 female and 211 male students. The data collection instruments used were a Personal Information Form and the Social-Emotional Learning Scale (SELS). Descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test, and one-way analysis of variance were utilized for data analysis. The research findings indicate that students' social-emotional learning skills are generally at a high level. In the family context, it was concluded that students' self-worth increases as the daily time spent with both parents increases and as the socio-economic status rises. In the context of childhood, students who reported playing with materials such as "dolls, kitchen utensils, stethoscopes, chef's aprons, and paper-pen" in childhood were found to have higher skills enhancing their self-worth. In the academic context, students attending Imam Hatip middle schools were found to have higher problem-solving skills, while students in other middle schools exhibited higher stress coping skills. Additionally, eighth-grade students (compared to other grade levels) were found to have higher scores in communication, stress coping, and general social-emotional learning skills. Finally, students with high academic achievement were also found to have similarly high communication, problem-solving, and general social-emotional learning skills.