Study Status
Ongoing
Project Team
Principal Investigator: Sam Hubley, PhD
Research Team Members: Julia C. Zigarelli, PhD; Ryan Guild; Sam Daley; Lily Fletcher; Matt Goodwin; Tyler Grimes; Morgan Jmohnson; Tara Knight, MFA; Boys & Girls Clubs Metro Denver Mental Health Team; Emma Piper-Burket; Danielle Ponder, Gianni Tills; Zach Volheim
Alignment with Crown Institute Vision
InsideU aligns with the Crown Institute’s vision by promoting emotional well-being through entertainment-based social-emotional learning. As a free, digital resource, InsideU offers an accessible and enjoyable way for kids, families, and educators to explore and understand emotions.
Background & Context
On October 19, 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Children’s Hospital Association jointly declared a national emergency in child and adolescent mental health. The US Surgeon General declared youth mental health an urgent public health issue.
Entertainment-based social-emotional learning offers an innovative, engaging tool to address this crisis by helping young people build emotional awareness and coping skills early in life.
Primary Aims
Aim 1: Create a free and highly engaging SEL resource to help kids learn about emotions in a fun and familiar context.
Aim 2: Create InsideU content and supportmaterials like facilitator guides within a participatory approach that centers collaborative design with children and community members.
Aim 3: Conduct program evaluations and research studies to evaluate InsideU’s acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness.
Research Methods
InsideU is a collaboratively designed Social Emotional Learning (SEL) program based on participatory methodologies and translational approaches focused on connecting emotion science with community wisdom. The development of InsideU also draws on entertainment education theory which proposes that engaging narratives can be highly effective approaches for providing widescale health education (Moyer-Gusé, 2008). Implementation frameworks guide formal rollouts and program evaluations of InsideU in real-world local afterschool settings such as Boys and Girls Clubs.
Key Findings & Publications /
Presentations
A 2024 pilot evaluation conducted with youth and mental health professionals from Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver (BGCMD) used collaboratively designed curricula to assess InsideU’s feasibility, usability, and effectiveness. Quantitative and qualitative data showed indications of promise (manuscript under review).
Hubley, S., Kim, J., Olivett, M., & Johnson, M. (2024). InsideU: Social Emotional Learning with Disney & Pixar's Inside Out. Panel presented at NAMI Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Hubley, S. (2024). Digital App for Social Emotional Learning Inspired by Disney/Pixar's Inside Out. Online Presentation for Center for Early Childhood Education Annual Meeting.
Hubley, S., Guild, R., Johnson, M., Arbuckle, J., Haislet, S., & Zigarelli, J. When Partnership Becomes Practice: A Collaborative Approach to Designing Social and Emotional Learning (submitted to Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy).
Contact to Learn More
References
Hubley, S., Moldow, E., Robbins, C., Harper, B., Martin, C., & Zhou, S. (2020). The impact of entertainment education for social and emotional learning in elementary schools. American Journal of Health Education, 51(5), 299–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/19325037.2020.1795751
Jones, J. M., Lee, L. H., Zigarelli, J. C., & Nakagawa, Y. S. (2017). Culturally-responsive adaptations in evidence-based treatment: The impact on client satisfaction. Contemporary School Psychology, 21(3), 211–222. https://doi.org/10.1007/S40688-016-0118-6 Niebaum, J.
C., Chevalier, N., Guild, R. M., & Munakata, Y. (2021). Developing adaptive control: Age-related differences in task choices and awareness of proactive and reactive control demands. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 21, 561–572. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13415-020-00832-2