Does a psychoeducational programme promote social-emotional development in Spanish six- year-old students regardless of gender?

Abstract

[Abstract] Social-emotional learning promotes positive development. A six-session programme was conducted to identify social-emotional changes among 83 students (meanage = 6 years). Self-reported and par-ent-reported pre- and post-test measures were used: a fluency task of naming emotions evaluated emotional awareness, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire measured emotional regulation and rela-tional skills, and the Behaviour Assessment System for Children-Parent Rating Scale assessed relational skills. Implementation was evaluated at the end of each session. Regardless of gender, children’s emotional awareness and regulation, relational skills, and wellbeing improved. Emotional symptoms decreased compared to a control group of a pre-vious research. Despite the lack of a concurrent control group and the small sample size, this study introduces the evaluation of a programme worthy of further development.[Resumen] El aprendizaje socioemocional favorece el desarrollo positivo. Se aplicó un programa de seis sesiones (CODIP-R) para identificar cambios socio-emocionales en 83 estudiantes (mediaedad = 6 años). Se realizaron medidas pre- post-test autoinformadas e informadas por los progenitores: conciencia emocional con una prueba de nombrar emociones, regulación emocional y habilidades relacionales con el Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire y habilidades relacionales con la Behaviour Assessment System for Children-Parent Rating Scale. Tras cada sesión, se evaluó la implementación. Independientemente del género, conciencia y regulación emocional, habilidades relacionales y bienestar mejoraron. Disminuyeron los síntomas emocionales comparados con un grupo control de una investigación previa. No hubo un grupo control simultáneo y la muestra es pequeña, pero este estudio introduce la evaluación de un programa que merece un desarrollo posterior.