Reasons to Read Books

The World Economic Forum provides five research-based reasons why reading books is good for you:  longer life, more efficient knowledge gain, greater literacies, better vocabulary, better brain maintenance. For details, read https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/06/5-reasons-why-reading-books-is-good-for-you

SEL Efforts Report

Major meta-analyses examined the short- and long-term effects of universal, school-based SEL programs across 265 reports on student outcomes in six domains: social and emotional skills, attitudes toward self and others, positive social behavior, conduct problems, emotional distress, and academic performance. The report describes several SEL efforts and their impact. The researcher also gives advice for educators training SEL.
Weissberg, R. P. (2019). Promoting the social and emotional learning of millions of school children. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(1), 65-69.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745691618817756?casa_token=jrjtLqv50KgAAAAA:OgOaueC9qyyA_y0tRUeYYcMVzByZ_Vk0fN6x3SnoVtUR4_t9FERhOgZVRtXHHaLeVBin3l6OiJvGHA

Social-emotional competence

This research review found that SEL is important for healthy development, facilitates in the behavior change process, and predicts important adult life outcomes. SEL can be improved with feasible, cost-effective interventions. Researchers developed an intervention model that enhances SEL, starting in preschool. Curriculum should include interpersonal and interpersonal competence, risk reduction, resistance skills, and ways to improve school climate. 

Domitrovich, C. E., Durlak, J. A., Staley, K. C., & Weissberg, R. P. (2017). Social‐emotional competence: An essential factor for promoting positive adjustment and reducing risk in school children. Child Development, 88(2), 408-416.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/cdev.12739?casa_token=7LbNAkzYw7wAAAAA:ougjl7guWCWKf6MsDWiCJYkmmHHB5cGzhCvZ3_UNVTyxKudoxRJDO7yboRub3XDbgBTlq6c3vYY2bQ8

Reading vs Listening Study

New evidence suggests that, to our brains, reading and hearing a story on an audiobook might not be so different. Researchers scanned the brains of nine participants while they read and listened to a series of tales from ‘The Moth Radio Hour.’ After analyzing how each word was processed in the cortex, they created brain maps, noting the different areas that helped interpret the meaning of each word. The stories stimulated the same cognitive and emotional areas, regardless of the medium.
Deniz, F. et al. (2019, Aug. 19). The representation of semantic information across human cerebral contex during listening versus reading is invariant to stimulus modality. Journal of Neuroscience,  0675-19.

Belonging and Bullying Study

A study of 900 middle schoolers found that students who report having a sense of belonging both at home and school are less likely to engage in bullying. The results indicate that the more a student feels like they belong among their peers and family, the more likely they will feel like they belong at school. In addition, the more they feel like they belong within their school community, the less likely they were to report bullying behaviors. This indicates that parents might be able to play a proactive role in increasing their child’s sense of belonging at school by focusing on improving a sense of belonging in the family.
Slaten, C., Rose, C., & Ferguson, J. (2019).  Understanding the relationship between youths' belonging and bullying behaviour: An SEM Model.  Educational & Child Psychology, 36(2).
https://shop.bps.org.uk/publications/publications-by-subject/educational-child-psychology-vol-36-no-2-june-2019-school-belonging.html

Growth Mindset Study

Yet giving students even a brief opportunity to understand and reflect on their mindsets for learning can make them likelier to challenge themselves and improve, according to a new national study.
A short (less than one hour), online growth mindset intervention—which teaches that intellectual abilities can be developed—improved grades among lower-achieving students and increased overall enrollment to advanced mathematics courses in a nationally representative sample of students in secondary education in the United States. Notably, the study identified school contexts that sustained the effects of the growth mindset intervention: the intervention changed grades when peer norms aligned with the messages of the intervention.
Yeager, D. et al. (2019). A national experiment reveals where a growth mindset improves achievement.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1466-y

Teen Media Use Survey

Tweens spend about 6 hours daily on entertainment media, and teens average 9 hours daily, according to a recent survey.They frequently multitask in the process, and much of their use is mobile. Their parents are more concerned about media content than the amount of time using meda. TV and radio are the main sources of entertainment. Media use is gender-linked, and socio-economically affected. The report examines each type of media and its use.

Common Sense Media. (2019). The Common Sense census: Media use by tweens and teens. San Francisco: Common Sense Media. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/uploads/research/census_researchreport.pdf