Castaldelli-Maia JM, Matakas NK. Could school programs based on social-emotional learning prevent substance abuse among adolescents? World J Psychiatry 2024; 14(8): 1143-1147 [PMID: 39165559 DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i8.1143]
Corresponding Author of This Article
João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, FMABC University Center, Fundação do ABC, Santo André, São Paulo 09060-870, SP, Brazil. jmcmaia2@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Substance Abuse
Article-Type of This Article
Editorial
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Psychiatry. Aug 19, 2024; 14(8): 1143-1147 Published online Aug 19, 2024. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v14.i8.1143
Could school programs based on social-emotional learning prevent substance abuse among adolescents?
João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia, Nicolas Kohatsu Matakas
João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, FMABC University Center, São Paulo 09060870, SP, Brazil
Nicolas Kohatsu Matakas, Department of Substance Use Disorders, Perdizes Institute-HCFMUSP, Sao Paulo 05021001, SP, Brazil
Author contributions: Castaldelli-Maia JM and Matakas NK wrote the manuscript. All Authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia and Nicolas Kohatsu Matakas declare to have none.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Neuroscience, Medical School, FMABC University Center, Fundação do ABC, Santo André, São Paulo 09060-870, SP, Brazil. jmcmaia2@gmail.com
Received: May 10, 2024 Revised: July 8, 2024 Accepted: July 11, 2024 Published online: August 19, 2024 Processing time: 93 Days and 21.8 Hours
Abstract
In this editorial, we comment on the article Adolescent suicide risk factors and the integration of social-emotional skills in school-based prevention programs by Liu et al. While the article focused on the issue of suicide and social-emotional learning programs as a possible intervention, we here discuss evidence of other reported outcomes and if it could be an effective way to prevent substance abuse among adolescents.
Core Tip: School programs based on social-emotional learning (SEL) are a powerful, well-established, cost-effective intervention to prevent multiple adverse outcomes. They focus on integrating social and emotional skills in school activities, improving relationships, and creating a better environment that leads to better student development. In the last three decades, they have consistently improved multiple domains that are also shared as risk and protective factors for substance abuse among adolescents. This article will discuss whether SEL-based programs could be an effective way to prevent substance-related outcomes in adolescents.
