Validation of the Emotional Literacy Program in Croatian Elementary Schools.

Tamara Mohorić,Vladimir Takšić,Ana Ćosić Pilepić

doi:10.3390/ijerph18126279

Abstract

Emotional Literacy (EL) is a well-designed, field-tested curriculum that enhances social, emotional, and academic learning. A total of 565 students, 53% female, from 17 elementary schools, participated in the study. Approximately half of the students participated in the eight-week-long EL program, while the other half was in control conditions. Both the experimental and control group fulfilled the same set of trait and ability emotional intelligence measures in three timepoints: pre-, immediately after, and six months after the program. The effect of the EL program was different for girls and boys at different measurement points. Boys placed in experimental group improved their scores at both post-treatment measurements, meaning that they rated themselves and felt more emotionally competent after being a part of the EL program. Emotional understanding improved consistently with time, measured with both the Vocabulary of Emotions Test (VET) and Test of Emotional Understanding (TEU), regardless of the participation in the EL program. The effect of maturation was slightly more visible in girls, and girls had consistently better scores on the VET and TEU tests than boys. The feedback from school psychologists working with children was positive; they agreed that the children responded well to the activities and willingly participated.

Highlights

Under the umbrella term of emotional intelligence, introduced to the scientific community in the present form by Salovey and Mayer at the beginning of the 1990s [1,2], and popularized by Goleman in 1995 [3], there are other, similar constructs, including the emotional quotient [4,5], emotional competence [3,6] and emotional literacy [7,8]
It has primarily been used in the area of education by emotional intelligence propagators associated with the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL)
We found a significant three-way interaction in the Emotional Skills and Competence Questionnaire, which showed that the effect of the Emotional Literacy program was different for girls and boys at different measurement points

Summary

Introduction

Under the umbrella term of emotional intelligence, introduced to the scientific community in the present form by Salovey and Mayer at the beginning of the 1990s [1,2], and popularized by Goleman in 1995 [3], there are other, similar constructs, including the emotional quotient [4,5], emotional competence [3,6] and emotional literacy [7,8]. Similar to emotional competence and in opposition to emotional intelligence, the term emotional literacy indicates that emotionally intelligent behavior can be taught It has primarily been used in the area of education by emotional intelligence propagators associated with the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL). Emotional literacy refers to the ability to understand others’ emotions or the way others feel, and is a fundamental and important aspect of EI. This term has been replaced by the term social–emotional learning or SEL, with the word “learning” deliberately used to emphasize the fact that the acquisition of skills and attitudes is a process [9]. Elias et al [10]

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