Social-Emotional Learning and Motivational Interviews With Middle School Youth With Disabilities or At-Risk for Disability Identification

Motivational interviewing (MI), a therapy strategy used to guide students to help students better understand how to develop their social emotional learning (SEL) skills to make positive choices that resolve social conflict, bodes promising for helping youth to cultivate the social and emotional skills needed to address bullying, peer drama, and other issues affecting their mental, physical, and emotional health. Bulldog Solution, Inc., a Chicago-based organization, utilized MI research-informed approach to increase students’ social conflict management and leadership skills through self-awareness and self-discovery, as a mechanism for preventing bullying and supporting the social and emotional growth of young people. This study presents emerging themes resulting from a 9-week, motivational interview and SEL-based program titled, “Peace Over Drama,” implemented with middle school students (sixth–seventh–eighth grade) with disabilities and/or at risk for disability-identification (n = 17) in one Chicago middle school on the south side. Implications for school-based prevention models and scaling of similar SEL and MI programing are discussed.