By Dr. Mark Zander, Head of the School Psychology Counselling Center Freiburg, Germany, and Catharina Gress-Wright, Analyst with the Directorate for Education and Skills, OECD
For school psychologists, every day can bring a new challenge. From a student struggling with test anxiety, to a teacher on the brink of burnout, to parent-teacher disputes; these professionals are ready to be called upon during a crisis. Operating at the intersection of education, mental health and social care, they are also uniquely positioned to support and advance social and emotional learning in schools.
The latest OECD Spotlight report – Bridging gaps in social and emotional skills: The essential contribution of school psychologists – highlights the pivotal role that school psychologists can play in social and emotional development. While often seen as emergency support for students, in many education systems these professionals are uniquely positioned to offer more help. For example, they can equip students with coping strategies, train teachers in supporting students’ emotional awareness and wellbeing, and foster inclusive school climates. The evidence shows that when psychologists collaborate with teachers, classroom behaviour improves, problem behaviours decrease by up to 30%, and prosocial interactions rise. Through stress-management workshops, group social skills training, or school-wide bullying prevention, their interventions can benefit all students.
This help is sorely needed. According to the OECD’s 2023 Survey on Social and Emotional Skills (SSES), children’s social and emotional skills decline between ages 10- and 15. Trust, optimism, persistence and creativity see some of the biggest drops. Ten-year-olds are more likely than 15-year-olds to see themselves positively, believe in the honesty of others, learn from failure, and find new ways of doing things. Gender differences also widen. Boys at 15 report stronger emotional regulation and sociability – better abilities to handle stress or initiate relationships – while 15-year-old girls extend their lead in tolerance, empathy, responsibility and achievement motivation.
These changes are not just “teenage mood swings”. They involve abilities that underpin mental health, academic success and social participation. Emotional regulation affects mental health, while curiosity, responsibility and achievement motivation are linked strongly to academic outcomes. If left unaddressed, these declines and disparities can limit young people’s futures.
A German success story
Certain countries have experimented with expanding the scope of school psychologists. For example, following the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany saw a crisis in students’ emotional well-being. Rising to this challenge was not easy: Germany, like many countries, was (and still is) experiencing a shortage of school psychologists. The target ratio is 1 per 5,000 students but, in reality, this is often missed.
In a creative response, the state of Baden-Württemberg designed and launched the Lernen mit Rückenwind (LmR) initiative, part of Germany’s national recovery programme for children and youth. Along with extra funding, an online portal offered schools a menu of additional supports. The LmR initiative also explicitly targeted students social and emotional skills, with options like increased school-based psychological support and peer-peer student mentoring. Retired counsellors, partner organisations, and student mentors were brought in to assist existing school psychologists. As a result, school psychologists were able to expand their work, supporting more students and providing training for staff on topics like anxiety and resilience.
Mental health and social and emotional skills are linked. For example, managing anxiety relies on skills like emotional control and stress resistance. The LmR initiative capitalised on this link by using school psychologists and counsellors to help students and schools improve their capacities in these areas. It also helped schools to reach students and staff before problems escalated.
While formal evaluation is still underway, implementation reports highlight promising examples of preventive psychological work in schools due to this work. The LmR initiative has been extended, with elements integrated into ongoing support programmes. Even so, practitioner accounts and union surveys suggest that scaling LmR uniformly across schools will remain a challenge due to staffing and time constraints.
Build the village
This shows what’s possible when school psychology moves beyond its traditional “firefighting” role and takes a more proactive approach. As both the OECD data and Germany’s experience show, social and emotional skills are not a given. They require nurturing throughout a young person’s life. Ultimately, this means that policymakers face a choice: continue to treat school psychology as a niche service, or recognise it as essential to resilience, equity, and the well-being of all students. The smart choice points clearly towards the latter.
