What is it about?
This article is about the adaptation and implementation of a brief, play-based programme addressing young children's social emotional competences (emotional awareness, emotional regulation, relational skills and wellbeing). The programme adapts the well-known Children of Divorce Intervention Program (CODIP) into an universal intervention regardless of the children's family condition. This new version of CODIP is a school-based intervention that comprises 6 sessions. Eighty three six-years old students participated. Process implementation (participation, security, feeling understood, and help) and children's wellbeing were evaluated after each session. Children's emotional competences were measured pre and post test. Regardless of gender, children’s emotional awareness and regulation, relational skills, and wellbeing improved. Emotional symptoms decreased compared to a control group of a previous 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.
Featured Image
Photo by Shubham Dhage on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This study is important because it shows that it is possible to adapt an indicated programme for children whose parents have gone through a divorce into an universal programme. The adaptation implied to select six of the 12 sessions of the original CODIP and to use examples that do not specifically refer to divorce. It is important because it has shown that even children whose range of potential improvement was smaller than it would be for high-risk groups can improve their emotional competences. And these improvements happened for both boys and girls. Finally, it is important because it has introduced an adaptation of a brief instrument to measure process implementation (participation, security, feeling understood, help, and children's wellbeing) based on the therapeutic alliance construct.
Perspectives
It has been a real challenge to see this article published because we could just count with a control group of a previous study. Our initial plan was to evaluate a concurrent control group but it became the hardest part of the study. We could not find any school interested in participating as a control group. Schools either wanted to participate in the programme or not participate but being just evaluated without joining the intervention was not appealling for them. Put this way, I do really understand them. But we found that the main reason to refuse the article was that we did not have that concurrent control group. We are thankful to Estudios sobre Educación that they saw the potential of our work.
Dr. Silvia López-Larrosa
Universidade da Coruna
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Does a psychoeducational programme promote social-emotional development in Spanish six- year-old students regardless of gender?, Estudios sobre Educación, April 2025, Universidad de Navarra,
DOI: 10.15581/004.50.001.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
