Maurice Elias

About

Maurice Elias is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers University. He serves as the Director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional Learning Lab and is the Academic Director of The Collaborative, Rutgers’ Center for Community-Based Research and Service. His areas of expertise include clinical psychology, social-emotional learning, and community-based research. Dr. Elias is also the Co-Director of the Academy for SEL. He has held leadership roles such as Past President of the Society for Community Research and Action/Division of Community Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA). Throughout his career, he has received numerous awards, including the SCRA Distinguished Contribution to Practice and Ethnic Minority Mentoring Awards, the APA’s National Psychological Consultants to Management Award, the Joseph E. Zins Memorial Senior Scholar Award for Social-Emotional Learning from CASEL, the John P.. McGovern Medal from the American School Health Association, and the Sanford McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Character Education. Dr. Elias is known for his work on students’ emotional intelligence, school success, and social-emotional and character development. He lectures nationally and internationally to educators and parents. His publications include books such as 'Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for Educators,' curricula for grades K-8, and other resources aimed at building emotional intelligence and resilience in…

Research topics

• Sociology
• Developmental psychology
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Political Science
• Computer Science
• Pedagogy
• Social Science
• Clinical psychology
• Art

Selected publications

• Setting the stage for Social Emotional Learning (SEL) policy and the arts

  Arts Education Policy Review · 2020 · 25 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Social Emotional Learning (SEL), like the arts, has accompanied human life throughout its existence. SEL refers to our capacity to recognize emotions in ourselves and others and manage them appropriately, be organized and set goals, solve problems and make decisions effectively, establish positive and productive relationships with others, and handle challenging situations capably. This issue is organized from broad, first addressing national policy, to specialized, surveying practitioner local-l…

  DOI

• Exploring social‐emotional learning, school climate, and social network analysis

  Journal of Community Psychology · 2022 · 17 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  There is currently limited research on student peer leadership in the social-emotional literature. This paper used exploratory methods of social network analysis to understand the structure of school peer relationships, peer leadership, and school climate. Self-report measures of perceptions of peer leadership and climate were given to students during the 2016-2017 school year. Data collected from a peer leadership survey were used to calculate closeness and indegree centrality values. The resul…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Life satisfaction in emerging adults: The role of emotional and spiritual intelligences

  Journal of American College Health · 2022 · 13 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  The results suggest that further research on emerging adults should investigate the critical issue of identity development, specifically regarding the impact of spiritual and emotional intelligence.

  PublisherDOI

• Exploring Relations among Social-Emotional and Character Development Targets: Character Virtue, Social-Emotional Learning Skills, and Positive Purpose

  International Journal of Emotional Education · 2022-06-01 · 13 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  In the current study, we sought to understand relations among the key intervention targets of social-emotional and character development (SECD) interventions: character virtues, Positive Purpose, and social-emotional learning (SEL). Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students (n = 1011, ages 11 to 16, M = 12.94, SD = 1.00) from five urban middle schools in the mid-Atlantic US completed self-report surveys containing measures of five supporting character virtues (diligence, gratitude, forgiveness,…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The social-emotional competencies of gifted children must be intentionally developed, ideally in inclusive education contexts

  Gifted Education International · 2024-11-13 · 11 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Traditionally, giftedness was perceived as a fixed trait, exclusively evaluated through cognitive testing. However, contemporary perspectives view it as a dynamic and socially constructed attribute reflected in many domains. As this paradigm-shift aligns with global movements emphasizing the importance of avoiding labelling students and enhancing the full potential of all students, rather than just a selected few, it puts a spotlight on the social-emotional and character development (SECD) compe…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jeffrey S. Kress

  37 shared

• Joseph E. Zins

  21 shared

• Danielle R. Hatchimonji

  Nemours Children's Health System

  16 shared

• Gwyne W. White

  15 shared

• Dominic C. Moceri

  14 shared

• Roger P. Weissberg

  12 shared

• Brian S. Friedlander

  11 shared

• Steven E. Tobias

  11 shared

Education

• Ph.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology, Psychology

  University of Connecticut

  1980

Awards & honors

• SCRA Distinguished Contribution to Practice and Ethnic Minor…
• APA’s National Psychological Consultants to Management Award
• Joseph E. Zins Memorial Senior Scholar Award for Social-Emot…
• John P.. McGovern Medal from the American School Health Asso…
• Sanford McDonnell Award for Lifetime Achievement in Characte…

Similar researchers at Rutgers University

• Richard Contradah-50
• Judith Hudsonh-49
• Jacob Feldmanh-36