Social-emotional development an exploration of definitions in the literature and Aboriginal perspectives

Summary: The current thesis consists of two papers. The first paper, presented in Chapter 2, examined recent research literature to identify how researchers define social-emotional development and to consider where further clarity is needed in defining this term. Using content analysis to examine researchers? definitions, four categories emerged, consisting of self-regulation; emotion knowledge; social and relationship skills; and self-concept. Researchers were generally consistent in their definitions; however, it was discovered that remarkably few researchers explicitly define social-emotional competence, instead relying on tools to operationalize this construct. The second paper, presented in Chapter 3, is a qualitative study that explored social-emotional competence from Aboriginal perspectives. Five themes emerged from the data. A strong identity was central to the other themes of cultural, social, emotional, and mental wellness. As a concluding discussion piece, Chapter 4 integrates the findings from both papers, discusses implications for practice, and identifies directions for future research.