PROGRAMA DE EDUCACIÓN DE LAS EMOCIONES: LA CON-VIVENCIA. EVALUACIÓN DE SU EFICACIA EN LA CONDUCTA PROSOCIALEDUCATIONAL PROGRAM OF EMOTIONS: THE CO-EXISTENCE. THE EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS IN PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Abstract

The education of the emotions takes place in the context of positive psychology (Seligman, 2000).In human development, the emotions play a key role, especially response patterns, and have animportant adaptive, personal and social value (Fredickson, 2001). An emotional response to dailysituations facilitates communication with oneself and with others. Thus, stimulation of positiveemotions contributes to personality development and a higher quality of interpersonal relationships, favoring a more adapted and prosocial behavior. Several empirical studies find that both certain emotions and cognitive processes are related to more prosocial behavior, which leads to greater social adaptation. (Carlo, Mestre, McGinley, Samper, Tur, y Sandman, 2012; Carlo, Mestre, Samper, Tur y Armenta, 2010; Tur, Mestre y Del Barrio, 2004). We present an Educational program of emotions aimed at improving coexistence among children. It is organizedinto 4 sections: 1) Knowledge and management of emotions, 2) Self-regulation of emotions and personal autonomy, 3) Communication skills: emotional and contextual intelligence, 4) Effective coping skills and social settlement. The study is applied in an age range of 7-12 years old (Mean=9.2; SD=1.5). We report the evaluation of its effectiveness in a sample of 555 children through the design of a Control Group (138 children) and an Experimental Group (294 children),with a pretest assessment of prosocial behavior variable and a posttest once the data had been collected. The results show the effectiveness of the program and its contribution to the development of positive emotions such as prosociality.