Positive Adolescent Development: Effects of a Psychosocial Intervention Program in a Rural Setting

[Health impact of the community intervention programme "Health education in adolescence"]

OBJECTIVE

To measure the impact of the community health programme "Education for health in adolescence" carried out in the Parquesol neighborhood, Valladolid (Spain), during the years 2015-2019.

METHOD

Community-based quasi-experimental pre- and post-test analytical intervention trial with control group. A total of 407 adolescent surveys were collected. The CHIP-AE test validated for Spain was used. Pre- and post-test results were analyzed and compared with the control group.

RESULTS

Improvements were found in the female intervention group compared to the control group in the variables resilience (3.68 vs. 3.41; p <0.01), health and safety at home (4.30 vs. 4.00; p <0.01), physical activities (3.16 vs. 2.60; p <0.01) and self-esteem (3.17 vs. 2.79; p <0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The community intervention carried out improves the health profile of adolescents. The baseline perception of health presents differences by gender, with higher scores in males. Post-intervention improvement is substantial in females in resilience, physical activities and health and safety at home. In addition, the worsening due to the passage of time described in previous studies is corrected in the variables self-esteem, satisfaction and well-being.

Psychoeducation Reduces Alexithymia and Modulates Anger Expression in a School Setting

Bullying and violence are relevant issues in school settings and negatively impact students’ well-being and mental health. Psychoeducation and anti-bullying programs may prevent violence among students by addressing emotional expression and regulation, alexithymia, and anger. We describe the impact of a psychoeducational intervention delivered to 90 male and 101 female school youths (N = 191), aged 12–14 years old, and aimed to improve their emotional recognition and regulation, as well as to reduce alexithymia in order to prevent aggression and bullying episodes. A psychological assessment has been performed before (T0) and after (T1) the intervention including levels of alexithymia, measured with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), Empathy Quotient (EQ), and the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Females have shown higher levels of alexithymia at baseline whereas other characteristics (anger, empathy quotient and emotional regulation) did not differ among sex groups. The psychoeducational program significantly increased the empathy quotient (+10.2%), the emotional regulation reappraisal (+20.3%), and the assertive anger expression (+10.9%); alexithymia significantly decreased after the intervention in all the samples (−14.4%), above all among students scoring ≥61 at TAS-20 (−48.2%). Limitations include a small sample from a single school setting, the lack of a control group without psychoeducation, and an assessment based on self-reported measures. We may conclude that psychoeducation has significantly reduced levels of alexithymia and improved empathy and emotional regulation among adolescents.

From Conflict to Socio-Emotional Well-Being. Application of the GIAM Model through Traditional Sporting Games

The education of pleasant interpersonal relationships is one of the great challenges of modern physical education. Learning to live together sustainably is also learning to transform conflicts and the negative emotions elicited by them. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the GIAM pedagogical model (of the Motor Action Research Group) through cooperation-opposition traditional sporting games with competition in the presence of motor conflicts (conflict transformation; relational well-being) and on emotional regulation (management of negative emotions; emotional well-being). Empirical research was carried out using an associative strategy (explanatory study) involving 222 secondary school students (Mage = 14.86; SD = 0.65). A seven-session pedagogical intervention was carried out based on a championship using the Marro (Prisoner’s Bar) game. The students answered two validated questionnaires of socio-emotional well-being, the Games and Emotions Scale (GES-II) and the Motor Conflict Questionnaire (MCQ), at three phases during the experience (beginning, middle, and end). The findings showed that, through the GIAM model, motor conflicts and the intensity of negative emotions were reduced. It was found that conflicts and negative emotions are part of the same phenomenon and that through an appropriate pedagogical program it is possible to turn them into experiences of socio-emotional well-being.