Exploring the Dynamics of a Culturally Sensitive School-Based Social-Emotional Learning Program for Rural Chinese Children: Evaluating Effectiveness, Mediators, and Moderators

Linyun Fu

Approximately 110 million children, 37.1% of the total child population in China, reside in rural areas. These areas are commonly associated with family poverty, parental migration, poor school and neighborhood environments, and limited access to mental health services. Given these cumulative risk factors, rural children endure negative mental health and educational outcomes that could be ameliorated through school-based social-emotional learning (SEL) programs. While such programs have shown significant promise in supporting children's development in Western contexts, few have been studied in non-Western, resource-constrained contexts such as rural China. This dissertation aims to investigate the impact of a culturally sensitive SEL program, co-developed by the author in collaboration with school social workers, school psychologists, and rural teachers. The study is theoretically informed by ecological systems theory, social learning theory, resilience perspective, and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) SEL framework. The study seeks to 1) enhance understanding of the effectiveness of this culturally sensitive SEL program on improving children's social-emotional competencies, reducing internalizing and externalizing problems, and improving educational outcomes; 2) elucidate the change mechanisms, and 3) identify the specific subgroups that benefit most. This study adopts a matched-pair, cluster-randomized design involving fifth-grade students from 18 rural experimental schools and 18 matched waitlist control schools in southwest China. Potential contributions of this study to education include advancing evidence-based educational practices, promoting culturally tailored school-based interventions, fostering educational equity for rural students, and informing policies on integrating SEL into the regular school curriculum.

About Linyun Fu

Linyun Fu is a Ph.D. candidate at the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago, where is mentored by Dr. Curtis McMillen and works with Dr. Leyla Ismayilova. She holds a bachelor's degree in social work from China Youth University of Political Studies and a master's degree in social work from Washington University in St. Louis. As a first-generation college student from a rural village in China, Linyun is dedicated to developing and evaluating culturally sensitive, school-based prevention and intervention strategies for marginalized children. Her research focuses on examining culturally tailored Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs for minoritized children, as well as adult SEL programs designed to support teachers and caregivers. Linyun has been a community-engaged researcher for over six years, working closely with the RICI Foundation, an NGO in China through supporting their SEL program development and program evaluation to enhance rural children's mental health and academic outcomes. At the University of Chicago, Linyun has taught and assisted in courses such as Program Evaluation in International Settings and Social Intervention: Research and Evaluation. She is the recipient of the 2025 Simon Doctoral Teaching Award from the Crown School at University of Chicago and the 2024 Student and Early Career Council Dissertation Research Funding Award from the Society for Research in Child Development.