Enhancing Social-Emotional Competence through Mindfulness-based Social-Emotional Learning among Adolescents in Vietnam: An Integrative Literature Review

Adolescent mental health has become an increasing concern in contemporary education, particularly in the context of academic pressure, psychological instability, and the expanding influence of digital environments. Social-emotional competence, commonly conceptualized through the five core competencies of the CASEL framework, is recognized as a key developmental resource that supports students’ well-being, adaptive functioning, interpersonal relationships, and responsible decision-making. In parallel, mindfulness-based approaches have gained attention as promising strategies for enhancing emotional awareness, self-regulation, attention, compassion, and prosocial behavior. This integrative literature review synthesizes international and Vietnamese studies on mindfulness-based approaches to enhancing social-emotional competence among adolescents. The review shows that international research has provided growing evidence for the positive role of mindfulness in social-emotional competence related outcomes; however, most studies remain fragmented, focusing on isolated indicators such as emotional regulation, self-compassion, empathy, stress reduction, or aggression rather than social-emotional competence as a holistic multidimensional construct. In Vietnam, research on social-emotional competence and mindfulness is still emerging, with studies mainly concentrated on life-skills education, measurement adaptation, and preliminary mindfulness interventions. The review highlights the need for culturally responsive, theoretically integrated, and empirically tested mindfulness-based social-emotional learning programs for Vietnamese adolescents.