16th EUSPR Conference and Members’ Meeting

A systematic review informing recommendations for assessing implementation variability in universal, school-based social and emotional learning interventions

26 Sept 2025, 09:00

15m

Innere Medizin/2-404 (Virchowweg 9)

Oral presentation Child and Youth Wellbeing Early Career session 4

Speaker

Annie O'Brien (The University of Manchester)

Description

Authors: Annie O'Brien (The University of Manchester), Margarita Panayiotou (The University of Manchester), Joao Santos (The University of Manchester), Suzanne Hamilton (The University of Manchester), Neil Humphrey (The University of Manchester)

Background: There is theoretical support for, and emerging empirical evidence that, implementation variability (e.g., fidelity, dosage, quality) influences outcomes of school-based social-emotional learning (SEL) interventions, yet this relationship remains underexplored. This review aimed to (1) identify and appraise the quality of methods used to assess the relationship between implementation variability and student outcomes and (2) determine the association between implementation dimensions and student outcomes, to reduce the research-to-practice gap and advance evidence-based practice.
Methods: British Education Index, ERIC, PsycINFO, ASSIA, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science were searched, initially identifying 2,987 studies. An Implementation Quality Appraisal Checklist (IQAC) was developed to assess the quality of research statistically examining the implementation-outcomes relationship. Extracted data were grouped according to the implementation dimension(s) assessed, the outcome domain(s) examined, and the statistical method(s) used.
Results. Thirty-one studies met the review inclusion criteria. Quality assessment classified fourteen studies (45%) as low quality, fifteen (48%) as medium quality, and 2 (7%) as high quality. The most frequently examined implementation dimensions were dosage (n=16), fidelity (n=11), quality (n=11), responsiveness (n=6) and reach (n=3). Inferring the implementation-outcomes relationship was hindered by the heterogeneity and low quality of studies, resulting in a small sample size of comparison groups; calculation of meta-aggregative effect sizes was therefore not possible.
Discussion. This review reveals the paucity of high-quality research examining the relationship between implementation variability of SEL interventions and student outcomes. Accordingly, we propose the use of the aforementioned IQAC to support and guide future research in this area, alongside recommendations to advance implementation science.