The Effects of a Culturally Sensitive Social and Emotional Learning Program on Rural Chinese Children: Evidence from a Matched-Pair Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial

Background and Purpose: There is a growing call to shift from Western-oriented Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs to prioritize culturally sensitive interventions that are more responsive to the unique needs of children in diverse cultural contexts. Although SEL has gained attention as a promising approach to supporting children’s mental well-being and promoting educational equity, limited research has been conducted in non-Western countries, particularly in resource-constrained settings. This study seeks to provide rigorous evidence on the effectiveness of a culturally sensitive SEL program in enhancing social-emotional competencies, mental health, and academic outcomes among elementary school children in rural China.

Methods: An 18-session culturally tailored SEL program was developed by the author in collaboration with local experts and implemented by training existing school teachers to deliver the sessions in classrooms. The study employed a matched-pair cluster randomization design, involving 18 rural elementary schools as the experimental group and another 18 matched schools as the control group in a county located in southwest China. Data were collected from September 2024 to March 2025 at three time points: baseline, post-intervention, and a three-month follow-up. Rural children participated by completing self-reported surveys via Qualtrics, which assessed their social-emotional competencies along with various psychological and educational outcomes. The total sample consisted of 1,607 fifth-grade students (Mean age = 10.37 years; 49.1% were girls). Multilevel modeling was used to analyze intervention effects, accounting for data clustering at the school level.

Results: Rural students rated the SEL program as highly satisfactory (Mean = 9.15, on a 1–10 scale), interesting (Mean = 9.28), helpful (Mean = 8.81), and practical (Mean = 8.31). Preliminary results from the multilevel modeling indicated that rural children in the experimental group showed significant improvements in social and emotional competencies compared to the control group at the three-month follow-up. These improvements were observed in overall social-emotional competencies (Cohen’s d = 0.47) and across five subdomains: self-awareness (d = 0.45), social awareness (d = 0.45), self-management (d = 0.44), relationship skills (d = 0.28), and responsible decision-making (d = 0.19). In terms of mental health outcomes, children in the intervention group reported significant reductions in both loneliness (d = -0.18) and aggressive behaviors (d = -0.13). In addition, they reported significantly fewer experiences of being bullied (d = -0.13) and bullying others (d = -0.13). Regarding educational outcomes, the findings revealed that children in the SEL intervention group demonstrated significant improvements in school engagement (d = 0.20) and perceived academic achievement (d = 0.28).

Conclusions and implications: These findings provide encouraging evidence supporting the effectiveness of a culturally sensitive SEL program in enhancing multiple developmental outcomes among rural children, with some domains demonstrating larger effect sizes than those typically reported in Westernized SEL programs. The results support the potential for scaling up school-based SEL interventions in rural schools, where educational and mental health resources are often most limited. In addition, the findings underscore the importance of culturally grounded or tailored SEL programs that explicitly integrate cultural elements to strengthen their impact.