Competências sociais e emocionais em contexto de acolhimento institucional

: implementação e avaliação da eficácia de um programa de intervenção

Abstract

The literature has demonstrated the efficacy of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) programs on the promotion of social and emotional skills, on the prevention of behavioral problems (Zins & Elias, 2006) and subsequent improvements in other domains. However, the investigation on this domain has focused mainly on the school context. On the other hand, studies indicate that children and youngsters in residential care constitute a risk population regarding psychological, behavioral and socialemotional problems (Marinkovic & Backovic, 2007). Despite the vulnerability revealed by this children and youngsters, the investigation concerning the efficacy evaluation of SEL programs in residential care contexts is scarce. Therefore, the objective of this study is to implement and evaluate the efficacy of an intervention program, on the domain of social and emotional skills, in a residential care facility. A pre-experimental study was chosen, with one group design, with pre and posttest.
The program was developed and implemented with six youngsters of a residential care facility, of the male gender, between 13 and 16 years old. The program integrated 11 sessions, focusing on three of the five dimensions referred by CASEL (2003): self-awareness, social awareness and self-management. The data collection integrated a variety of instruments, both of qualitative and quantitative nature, resorting to the participants and respective case managers as informants.
The results indicate the efficacy of the program, being verified improvements on social and emotional knowledge and skill, namely regarding the definition and designation of emotions, recognizing others emotional state, strategies of emotional regulation, recognition of the cognitive, behavioral and physical dimensions of emotions, and self-control. The implications of the study are discussed, which strengthen the relevance of developing SEL programs in a planned, systematic, continuous and coordinated way (Greenberg et al., 2003), in residential care context.

Date of Award	2013
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Luísa Mota Ribeiro (Supervisor)