Abstract
This study aimed to examine the impact of implementing an innovative Social-Emotional Skills Training Program in physical education classes at youth schools. This study used two surveys: the Schutte Self-Report Inventory (otherwise known as the Emotional Intelligence Scale) and the Social Skills Rating System (student form). The analysis included 104 youth school students (Mage = 16.91; SD = 1.12), who were randomly selected from two youth schools in the Kaunas region. Four classes were randomly assigned into an experimental (n = 49) and a control (n = 55) group. The experimental group participated in the Social-Emotional Skills Training Program. The intervention was targeted at the following social-emotional skills: empathy, cooperation, assertion, self-control, optimism, ability to understand and analyze emotions, appraisal, and utilization of emotions. The modified physical education classes were conducted by the physical education teacher, who was instructed by the researcher. Repeated measures multivariate ANOVA was used to analyze the effects of the Social-Emotional Skills Training Program. During the experiment, the applied training procedures had a statistically significant effect on the social-emotional skills of the experimental group of youth school students. Thus, the findings demonstrate that this program (for enhancing social-emotional skills of youth school students) positively impacted the social-emotional skills of the students. These results highlight the need to consider social-emotional skills training factors when interpreting the level of social-emotional skills among youth school students.
Highlights
Recent scientific literature broadly supports the notion that social-emotional skills are important for personality development, the development of prosocial behavior, and positive emotional growth
To examine the effects of this educational program on the social-emotional skills of youth school students, we investigated the changes in the social-emotional skills of the youth school students following the implementation of the educational program in physical education classes
Given that previous studies have proven the effectiveness of training the socialemotional skills of secondary school students during physical education classes (Sklad et al, 2012; Akelaitis and Malinauskas, 2016; Escartí et al, 2018; Bartlett, 2019), we hypothesized that youth school students would demonstrate significantly improved social-emotional skills following the implementation of the program
Summary
Recent scientific literature broadly supports the notion that social-emotional skills are important for personality development, the development of prosocial behavior, and positive emotional growth. Only a few reviews have analyzed the effectiveness of social-emotional skills training in the sports or physical education context (Rasberry et al, 2011; Bessa et al, 2019, 2021). A systematic review revealed that only 19 studies (37%) confirmed the fidelity of implementing the educational program, meaning “the authors performed the validation of the Social-Emotional Skills of Youth-School Students model implementation and presented a detailed description of the program.” Youth schools have been chosen for this study because they are designed to teach students who have dropped out of typical schools and characteristically lack strong social-emotional skills (Malinauskas, 2019). Youth school students can have unique learning interests and learning barriers, and they can be potential perpetrators of crimes or misdemeanors, even participating in the juvenile detention system (Malinauskas and Saulius, 2019)
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