From social and emotional learning in adolescence to emotional-skill training in teachers = Desde la educación socio-emocional en adolescencia al entrenamiento en habilidades emocionales en profesores

The idea of introducing social and emotional learning in educational settings is based on the assumption that emotions are an essential element of school life. Emotional competencies are conducive to student learning and well-being, in addition to conveying emotional resources for teachers and educators. The development of such abilities is a prerequisite for students and teachers to engage in productive and enjoyable classroom dynamics. Indeed, well-developed emotional competence enhances students’ psychological adjustment, self-esteem, adaptive coping with stress at school and academic success. However, engaging in disruptive behaviors and school violence (bullying) may be attributed to a deficit in students’ social and emotional development. Similarly, being emotional intelligent is also a crucial skill for teachers, as educational work includes expressing empathy and support and displaying appropriate emotions during teaching, which enhances students’ learning. Research has stressed the protective role of teachers’ emotional competencies regarding mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety and work-related stress (burnout). The objective of the present research was to examine the impact of emotional competence on psychological adjustment, subjective well-being and mental health, in both student and teacher populations in a school context. Given the characteristics of a multi-paper thesis, six studies have been included that provide the scaffolding for this research. The studies 1-4 focused on the development of emotional competence in relation to psychological adjustment and subjective well-being in adolescent students. The studies 5-6 addressed the study of emotional intelligence in teachers in relation to mental health issues, specifically burnout. In view of the results obtained by the six studies, the ESCQ-21 has been found to be a reliable and valid tool for measuring emotional competence in Spanish adolescents. Furthermore, students as well as teachers benefit from well-developed emotional competencies. While emotional competence in adolescents was associated with social-emotional adjustment and subjective well-being, in teachers emotional intelligence predicted mental health outcomes. A couple of mediators, such as self-esteem, perceived stress and affectivity have been suggested that might explain the psychological mechanisms that underlie the link between emotional development, mental health and well-being. Finally, socio-emotional intervention programs have been shown their effectiveness for a wide range of positive outcomes in students and teachers. For instance, they may be considered valuable tools for preventing bullying among peers and alleviating teacher burnout. Drawing from these findings, the dissertation makes a relevant contribution to the existing literature that stresses the benefits of developing emotional competence for psychological adjustment, mental health and well-being among students and teachers

'We can Only Teach from Our Own Experience': From Emotional Learning in Childhood and Adolescence to Emotional Training in Teachers

The ability to understand and process emotional information is an important part of human functioning as it facilitates an adequate adjustment to the environment [1]. The development of emotional abilities, including the capacity to perceive, use, understand and manage emotions underlies social competence and performance [2]. For instance, accurate perception of another person's emotional state enhances the estimation and understanding of their intention and subsequent behavior, making it easier to respond accordingly [3]. Emotions can facilitate thought processes reinforces learning, concentration, and execution [4]. Understanding the meaning of emotions in a social context guides decision-making, problem solving and reasoning [5]. Managing emotions effectively is the key to interpersonal relationships of good quality, due to the ability to express and behave in socially acceptable manners [2]. Furthermore, these emotional skills have been associated with physical and mental health, psychological well-being, as well as academic and work success [6

Personalidad, relaciones familiares y satisfacción con la vida en parejas casadas

Las características de la personalidad pueden modular la cohesión y la adaptabilidad familiar en las relaciones románticas, así como garantizar mayor satisfacción y bienestar. Este estudio se centró en analizar las variables personales y familiares, así como su influencia en la satisfacción con la vida de los cónyuges. Los participantes fueron 182 parejas heterosexuales casadas, con edades entre 27 y 54 años. Se aplicó la versión española del Big Five Inventory, la Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale y la Satisfaction with Life Scale. Los resultados indicaron mayores niveles de neuroticismo y cohesión familiar en las mujeres. Se observaron relaciones entre las características de la personalidad y la satisfacción con la vida, lo cual indicó efectos tanto a nivel intrapersonal (actor efects) como interpersonal (partner efects). Además, las variables personales y familiares de ambos cónyuges predijeron la satisfacción con la vida de las mujeres pero no de los hombres. Estos resultados apoyan el enfoque de interdependencia en las parejas casadas

The impact of peer attachment on prosocial behavior, emotional difficulties and conduct problems in adolescence: The mediating role of empathy.

Attachment theories postulate that during adolescence, peer relationships become more important as a predictor of positive social, emotional and behavioral outcomes. Adolescents develop the ability to empathize with others, which is related to healthy functioning and positive peer relationships. Empathy has been studied as a potential mechanism that may help to explain how strong and healthy emotional bonds are associated with less emotional disorders and conduct problems in youth. The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between peer attachment and strengths and difficulties during adolescence, considering empathy as a potential mediator of this association. A total of 800 Spanish adolescents (56.65% girls), aged between 12 and 15 years (M= 14.02, SD= 1.21), completed measures of peer attachment, empathy, conduct problems, emotional difficulties and prosocial behavior. Structural equation models indicated that peer attachment was negatively associated with conduct problems and emotional difficulties but positively related to prosocial behavior. In general, empathy mediated the link between peer attachment and both emotional and behavioral outcomes, without significant group differences between boys and girls. The discussion focuses on the importance of healthy peer relationships as a powerful predictor of emotional well-being and psychological problems in adolescence

How effective are psychological treatments for internet gaming disorder? An umbrella review

Behavioural addictions such as Internet addiction (IA) and, more specifically, Internet gaming disorder (IGD) or video game addiction, have increased their prevalence in recent years in the child and adolescent population. The aim of the present study was to review and synthesise the existing evidence on the effectiveness of psychological treatments for addressing this addiction, as well as to compare them with other types of treatment. To this end, an in-depth search for systematic reviews and meta-analyses was carried out across different databases (WOS, Scopus, PubmMed, Cochrane), inclusion and exclusion criteria were set, and guidelines for the search strategy were defined, as well as the study selection method. A total of 14 reviews and meta-analyses were reviewed. The results showed that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) was the most studied psychological treatment, consistently showing effectiveness in reducing the symptoms and severity of IA/IGD. Furthermore, CBT appeared to be more effective when combined with other types of treatment such as pharmacological treatment. It is concluded that there is a need to investigate the effectiveness of psychological treatments for IA/IGD separately in order to provide appropriate interventions to reduce the severity of addiction and improve the quality of life and well-being of children and adolescents¿Qué eficacia tienen los tratamientos psicológicos para el trastorno de juego por internet? Una revisión de revisiones. Las adicciones conductuales como la adicción a internet (IA) y, concretamente, el trastorno de juego por internet (IGD) o adicción a videojuegos, han aumentado su prevalencia en los últimos años en población infanto-juvenil. El objetivo del presente estudio fue realizar una revisión de revisiones para agrupar y sintetizar la evidencia existente acerca de la efectividad de los tratamientos psicológicos para abordar este tipo de adición, así como compararlos con otros tipos de tratamiento. Para ello, se realizó una búsqueda exhaustiva de revisiones sistemáticas y/o meta-análisis en diferentes bases de datos (WOS, Scopus, PubmMed, Cochrane), se establecieron los criterios de inclusión y exclusión, y se definió la estrategia de búsqueda, así como el método de selección de los estudios. En total se revisaron 14 revisiones y meta-análisis. Los resultaron evidenciaron que la terapia cognitivo-conductual (TCC) fue el tratamiento psicológico más estudiado, mostrando consistentemente efectividad para reducir los síntomas y la severidad de IA/IGD. Además, la TCC parece ser más efectiva cuando se combinaba con otros tipos de tratamiento como el farmacológico. Se concluye la necesidad de investigar la efectividad de los tratamientos psicológicos para IA/IGD de manera diferenciada con el objetivo de establecer intervenciones adecuadas que permitan reducir la gravedad de la adicción y mejorar el bienestar y la calidad de vida de los niños y adolescente

Risk factors for being a victim of online grooming in adolescents

The risk of child grooming has spread exponentially with the massive access of adolescents to social networks and the internet. The aim of the study was to examine the personal factors (body self-esteem and disinhibition) and erotic-sexual factors (sexual initiation strategies and erotic-pornographic sexting) that predict grooming. METHOD: The sample was comprised of 1,200 adolescents aged between 12 and 16 years (M = 14.54, SD = 1.17; 50.83% girls). A cross-sectional design with self-report data was used and structural equation modeling (SEM) with mediation analysis was performed. RESULTS: The results indicated two paths explaining child grooming: 1) physical attractiveness and disinhibition are indirectly associated with grooming through erotic sexting and direct sexual initiation strategies; both of which partially mediate this relationship; 2) disinhibited behavior has an indirect impact on grooming; pornographic sexting and coercive strategies acting as mediators. The semi-partial mediation model explains 54% of the variance of grooming. CONCLUSIONS: These findings highlight the urgent need to implement prevention programs considering these attitudes and behaviors that function as precursors of victimization and the risk of falling into pedophile networks

The Impact of Adolescent Internet Addiction on Sexual Online Victimization: The Mediating Effects of Sexting and Body Self-Esteem

Adolescents’ problematic use of the internet and the risk of sexual online victimization are an increasing concern among families, researchers, professionals and society. This study aimed to analyze the interplay between adolescents’ addiction to social networks and internet, body self-esteem and sexual–erotic risk behavior online: sexting, sextortion and grooming. While sexting refers to the voluntary engagement in texting sexual–erotic messages, sextortion and grooming are means of sexual–erotic victimization through the use of the internet. Participants were 1763 adolescents (51% girls), aged 12 to 16 years (M = 14.56; SD = 1.16), from public (n = 1068; 60.60%) and private (n = 695; 39.40%) high schools in the Basque Country (Spain). We carried out structural equation modeling (SEM) using Mplus to assess the mediating effects of body self-esteem in the relationship between addiction to social media and internet and sexual–erotic risk behavior. The results showed that internet addiction predicts online sexual victimization; specifically, the best predictors of sexting, sextortion and grooming victimization were symptoms of internet addiction and geek behavior. Body self-esteem and sexting mediated the relationship between internet addiction and sexual online victimization in adolescents. These results highlight the importance of attending to adolescents’ mental health regarding their online behavior, considering the risk and protective factors involved, due to its close association with online sexual victimization.This research was supported by grants from the Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Government (BFI-2012-40)

La personalidad y su relación con el afrontamiento al estrés

Una personalidad poco adaptada se manifiesta en una deficiente estabilidad emocional bajo situaciones de estrés. El objetivo del presente estudio es analizar si existe relación entre las características de personalidad y el afrontamiento ante situaciones estresantes. Los participantes fueron 120 personas entre 18 y 47 años (M= 24,78; DT= 6,36) sin diagnóstico conocido de trastorno mental. Se aplicó el Cuestionario de Afrontamiento al Estrés (CAE; Chorot y Sandín, 2002) y el Inventario Clínico Multiaxial de Millon II (MCMI-II; Millon, 1998). Los resultados indican que las personas con elevada puntuación en las escalas del MCMI-II tienen una mayor tendencia a utilizar el afrontamiento emocional ante las situaciones de estrés. También presentan un patrón deficiente de afrontamiento racional. En conclusión, estos resultados tienen relevancia para la práctica terapéutica, orientando al profesional sobre las intervenciones a realizar en función de la personalidad del paciente, para favorecer un desempeño adecuado ante las circunstancias vitales estresantes

Conciencia emocional, estados de ánimo y rendimiento académico.

Emotional awareness is the basic emotional competence, which refers to individual differences in the way of being aware of the emotional functioning. Moods appear without specific reason, and are prolonged in time. Both are involved in multiple processes that modulate behavior and cognitive processes. Overall, the literature suggests a relationship between these variables and academic performance in school, however, is a contentious issue to be determined. The objective is to study the relationship of emotional awareness and moods academic performance. The participants were 1423 children, between 8-12 years old (M=9.88, SD=1.20), of both sexes (52.4 % girls) from Valencia. Participation was voluntary, and informed of the confidentiality of data. The assessment instruments used were Emotional Awareness Questionnarie, and Mood Questionnaire. For the statistical analysis of data SPSS V.21 was used correlation, t test, and regression analysis. The results show that there is a relationship between emotional variables and academic performance. Thus, those children with better academic performance have higher scores in Differentiating emotions, Verbal sharing emotions, Not hiding emotions, Body awareness, Attending to others¿ emotions, Analysis own emotions and Happiness. While obtained lower scores on Sadness, Fear and Anger. In conclusion, it seems that there is a relationship between emotional functioning of the child and academic results, as children with more emotional skills and better mood score. And it shows the importance of addressing emotions from the school context. In future research it would be interesting to meet other variables related to adaptation and school problems

Funcionamiento familiar, personalidad y satisfacción vital en parejas casadas.

Los estudios sobre las parejas casadas señalan que las características de personalidad de cada uno de los cónyuges, están relacionadas con la satisfacción en la pareja. Las investigaciones indican que Neuroticismo, Amabilidad y Responsabilidad son los factores de personalidad relacionados con la satisfacción matrimonial, que a su vez promueve la satisfacción vital de los cónyuges en general. Con respecto al funcionamiento familiar, la dimensión de cohesión familiar, definida como vínculos afectivos entre los miembros de la familia, ha sido iden- tificada como variable predictora del bienestar subjetivo. Las investigaciones específicas sobre la influencia que tienen los rasgos de personalidad de las parejas casadas sobre el funcionamiento familiar y marital son escasas. Tampoco existen resultados concluyentes sobre las diferencias de género, y la importancia de personalidades similares vs. diferentes como predictores de la satisfacción en la pareja. El objetivo del estudio es identificar la influencia de las características de personalidad y del funcionamiento familiar sobre la satisfacción con la vida en las relaciones de pareja, así como especificar las diferencias de género. Los participantes fueron 187 parejas casadas (N=374) con edades comprendidas entre los 27 y 54 años que complementaron el 'Big Five Inventory' (BFI-10), la Escala de la Cohesión y Adaptabilidad Familiar (CAF) y la Escala de Satisfacción con la Vida (SWLS). Se realizaron pruebas t de Student para muestras relacionadas, análisis de varianzas, correlaciones bivariadas de Pearson y análisis de regresión lineal múltiple. Los resultados indican que existen asociaciones significativas entre personalidad, funcionamiento familiar y satisfacción con patrones diferentes para mujeres y hombres. Así como que existen diferencias de género en la predicción de la variable satisfacción. Concluimos que las parejas se parecen entre sí a nivel psicológico, pero la relación entre las variables evaluadas tiene una mayor relevancia para las mujeres que para sus marido