[Personal View] The fine line between the cure and the illness: the risks of prescriptive emotionality and sociality for youth mental health

School-based initiatives are increasingly promoted as solutions to the youth mental health crisis, with Social Emotional Learning (SEL) among the most widely adopted frameworks worldwide. While designed to foster healthy socio-emotional development, evidence for SEL’s long-term mental health benefits remains mixed. Concerns are also growing that universal, non-targeted SEL programs may inadvertently pathologize normal developmental experiences, reinforce self-monitoring, or generate cultural mismatches that undermine resilience.