[Design and pilot testing of a school-based emotional education program for health promotion and prevention for children from 3 to 5 years of age.]

Abstract

Objective: Increasing emotional competence is a health promotion strategy that can be enhanced through school-based emotional education programs. This study aims to describe the participative process to design the emotional education program 1, 2, 3, emoció! aimed at children aged from 3 to 5 years and to analyze the results of the pilot test.

Methods: Existing international emotional education programs were reviewed. A participative process was carried out for its adaptation and a pilot test of the training and materials. Training and activity evaluation questionnaires were used to calculate mean scores for quantitative responses and percentages for categorical responses, and the Emotional Competence Profile Questionnaire for teaching staff was administered before and after the intervention and for which it was calculated whether there were significant differences between the two scores using Wilcoxon test.

Results: Eleven school programs were reviewed. The Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) program was selected. Seventeen professionals participated in working groups to carry out the adaptation to the Barcelona context. Eleven schools participated in the pilot test. The teachers increased their emotional competencies. The teachers' average evaluation of the activities was 8.18 out of 10. The result of the whole is the 1, 2, 3, emoció! program.

Conclusions: The 1, 2, 3, emoció! program is well received by the schools participating in the pilot test. Future studies should evaluate its effectiveness.