Preschool teachers’ use of strategies to support social-emotional competence in young children

Abstract

Healthy development of social-emotional competence in early childhood years creates a strong foundation for future academic success and social-emotional well-being. The purpose of this descriptive study was to investigate preschool teachers’ use of strategies to support young children’s social-emotional competence. A total of 103 teachers and classrooms participated in the study. Descriptive findings of the study indicated that preschool teachers implemented a few practices to promote social-emotional competence in young children in the absence of training and professional development support. Preschool teachers were observed to implement universal promotion practices more often than tertiary preventions practices. Preschool teachers’ overall use of strategies to enhance the social-emotional competence of young children did not differ significantly across classroom types and levels and based on whether teachers received training on promoting social-emotional development and addressing challenging behaviors. While there was a positive correlation between the level of preschool teachers’ use of social-emotional teaching strategies and the number of adults in the classrooms, a negative correlation was observed between preschool teachers’ use of strategies and the number of children in the classrooms. Implications of the findings for future research and practice are discussed.