Toward culturally responsive social-emotional learning: Asian American caregivers’ perspectives on children’s SEL competencies

Asian Americans (AA) reported facing disproportionate levels of mental health issues. The model minority myth and the rise of racism against AA individuals during COVID further exacerbated this crisis. One solution is to provide culturally relevant mental health support to AA students in schools, including partnering with AA caregivers to develop and deliver interventions. Yet, there is limited research on culturally relevant social-emotional learning (SEL) programs for AA families. Utilizing a qualitative design grounded in the phenomenological approach, this study explored AA caregivers’ perceptions of SEL competencies for children as the first step in culturally adapting existing SEL programs for AA families. Twenty AA caregivers participated in a semi-structured interview to share their thoughts on SEL. Guided by the Emotion Socialization in Cultural Context Framework and reflexive thematic analysis, three themes were formed: (1) broad but nuanced alignment with the CASEL framework, (2) the values of SEL skills, and (3) building SEL competencies starts from self. The findings of this study provide important context to inform the cultural adaptation of SEL programming for AA families, including how AA caregivers conceptualize each of the CASEL five competencies.