Fifteen Eighty Four

The incessant rate at which the world is changing is causing greater levels stress, especially for youth. Shared global challenges such as climate change, threats of disease, political unrest, the rise of artificial intelligence, or extinctions of animal and plant species, are just some examples of the uncertainties and concerns that are now part of childhood and young adulthood. Young people look for guidance and leadership from adults, who are experiencing burnout, economic insecurities, emotional turmoil and disturbances, substance abuse, and long episodes of negative emotions that are associated with somatic malaise. Without guidance, youth may succumb to the excessive stress, which negatively affects their holistic development, creating lifelong consequences for social and emotional well-being.

Emotional disturbances, such as one’s first major episode or symptoms of anxiety or depression, are creeping earlier in one’s life, so that the average person who once experienced it in their late teens, may now have an episode in elementary school (Baourda et al., 2024; Gudmundsen et al., 2018; Health Resources and Services Administration, 2020). For instance, Generation Alpha, which designates those born from 2010 to 2024 have shown to experience emotional disturbances earlier than previous generations, such as with Generation X. Generation Alpha are challenged with constant change and uncertainties, to where their lives must always be adapting, moving, and fluctuating with the needs and circumstances of the world. The demands upon the child are becoming more complex, in which they are hurried to choose a career pathway and keep up with technological demands, while the time for nondirected free play and exploring the natural world have greatly diminished.

Parents and professionals such as educational leaders, psychologists, educators, and even those that run after-school programs for youth seek to prepare Generation Alpha to overcome the challenges of an uncertain future, while learning to adaptively cope with stress to promote emotional well-being. However, adults themselves are having trouble adaptively coping with the same challenges and concerns.

To lead Generation Alpha to overcome global challenges while also establishing social and emotional well-being, parents and professionals must develop their own social and emotional intelligences (SEI), which are a spectrum of abilities that are associated with holistic processes of emotional experience, developing self-awareness for the phenomenon of emotions, emotion regulation, discovering social awareness and empathy, freedom of choice, and forming diverse relationships. Development of the SEI are protective and preventative factors against intense stressors and emotional disturbances that appears to be staples of society. Studies have found that levels of SEI are related to relationship satisfaction, career success, and even physical health (Blendea et al., 2024; Martskvishvili & Lagidze, 2022). When adults mindfully cultivate their SEI, they foster holistic well-being, equanimity, and centeredness, which is the strongest place to lead future generations.

Developing one’s own SEI demonstrates for youth how to live with diligence—appreciating the preciousness of life, regulating emotions, developing empathy with other beings, making growth-promoting decisions, cultivating relationships, exploring spirituality, and learning how to express emotions that align with inner values and long-term goals. If adults take care of themselves in this mindful manner, they model for youth how to develop SEI. Furthermore, developing SEI means discovering the courage to explore emotions, both positive and negative with curiosity and compassion. Both positive and negative emotions are essential and represent a unity—one cannot exist without the other. Although youth may be fearful of negative emotions, adults may become companions to explore meanings of experience, in which something enlightening may be discovered or created, together. This also means opening up to the empathic connections for understanding how life might be for other people, animals, etc.—ultimately enlightening one’s world paradigm.

I wrote Essentials of the Social and Emotional Intelligences to explore with readers certain phenomena within the SEI. Once parents and professionals learn to develop their SEI, they can learn to create innovative opportunities for youth to actualize their social and emotional potentials—especially for marginalized or underserved communities of youth that need equitable opportunities. Essentials explores SEI from different research discourses and cultural paradigms to question and explore meanings of experience. Effective leadership for Generation Alpha into the 21^st century means unlocking the potentials of the SEI. These potentials are guided by emotions and social relationships, which lead an inner discovery of the self that will have far reaching effects on societies, cultures, natural environments, animals, and the globe—redefining what it means to be human in the here-and-now.

Title: Essentials of Social and Emotional Intelligences

Author: Christopher J. Kazanjian

ISBN: 9781009415101