Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Front Public Health. 2023 Mar 23;11:992863. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.992863. eCollection 2023.
Global implementation of social and emotional learning (SEL) has been suggested to incorporate a systematic cultural adaptation process which relies on ground-up empirical data of a target cultural group in tailoring a culturally sensitive SEL intervention. Preliminary formative studies among local parents and educators were done to explore the conceptualization of social and emotional competencies (SECs) in various cultural settings, such as the continent of Africa and among the indigenous and refugee groups. Unfortunately, little scholarship has been devoted to studying the SEL adaptation process in Southeast Asian regions. This formative study aimed to explore Malaysian parents' and teachers' cultural conceptualization of adolescent SECs.
This qualitative study interviewed 12 Malaysian parents and 10 Malaysian teachers comprising of Malay (82%), Chinese (9%) and Indian (9%) races in an online focus group discussion. Sampling is purposive to parents of adolescents and teachers at secondary school only. Data were analyzed thematically to determine the culturally sensitive SEL constructs for Malaysian adolescents.
All themes and sub-themes of SEC regarded as crucial for Malaysian adolescents are aligned with CASEL's five domains of competencies. Our findings extended the conceptualization of subskills under CASEL's relationship skills and responsible decision-making domains, which reflect Asian cultural values. The main themes of social competency: (a) preserving interpersonal relationships, (b) utilizing intrapersonal skills, and (c) communicating effectively, are shared with the established CASEL constructs. However, the underlying subthemes denote the unique cultural manifestation of social competency in Malaysia. Two of the emotional competency themes represent the established CASEL constructs: (a) practicing self-regulation, (b) demonstrating help-seeking behavior, and the other two themes signify Asian values: (c) upholding altruism, and (d) maintaining cultural display rules.
This formative study revealed the habitual use of experiential and expressive suppressions as adaptive emotion regulation strategies in Malaysian collectivist culture and offered a potential alternative emotion regulation pathway suitable for Malaysian adolescents. It also informed the feasibility of implementing SEL modules developed based on the CASEL framework in Malaysia and suggested two key lessons to enhance the cultural sensitivity of SEL in Malaysia: effective, respectful communication and expressive writing.
全球范围内实施社会情感学习（SEL）已被建议纳入一个系统的文化适应过程，该过程依赖于目标文化群体的基础实证数据，以定制具有文化敏感性的 SEL 干预措施。先前在当地家长和教育工作者中进行的初步形成性研究旨在探索各种文化背景下（例如非洲大陆以及土著和难民群体）的社会情感能力（SEC）的概念化。不幸的是，很少有学术研究致力于研究东南亚地区的 SEL 适应过程。这项形成性研究旨在探索马来西亚家长和教师对青少年 SEC 的文化概念化。
本 qualitative 研究通过在线焦点小组讨论采访了 12 名马来西亚家长和 10 名马来西亚教师，其中包括马来人（82％）、华人（9％）和印度人（9％）。抽样仅限于青少年的家长和中学教师。通过主题分析对数据进行分析，以确定马来西亚青少年的具有文化敏感性的 SEL 结构。
所有被认为对马来西亚青少年至关重要的 SEC 主题和子主题都与 CASEL 的五个能力领域一致。我们的研究结果扩展了 CASEL 的关系技能和负责任决策领域的子技能概念化，这反映了亚洲文化价值观。社会能力的主要主题：（a）维护人际关系，（b）利用个人技能，（c）有效沟通，与既定的 CASEL 结构共享。但是，潜在的子主题表示马来西亚社会能力的独特文化表现。两个情感能力主题代表既定的 CASEL 结构：（a）练习自我调节，（b）表现出寻求帮助的行为，另外两个主题表示亚洲价值观：（c）坚持利他主义，以及（d）维护文化展示规则。
这项形成性研究揭示了马来西亚集体主义文化中习惯性使用体验式和表达性抑制作为适应性情绪调节策略，并为马来西亚青少年提供了一种潜在的替代情绪调节途径。它还为在马来西亚实施基于 CASEL 框架的 SEL 模块的可行性提供了信息，并提出了增强马来西亚 SEL 文化敏感性的两个关键教训：有效、尊重的沟通和表达性写作。
