Preventative initiatives to promote psychological adjustment among primary students: Findings of RULER Approach in Spanish public schools

Authors

  • Ruth Castillo Gualda Faculty of Health, Universidad Camilo Jose Cela
  • Alvaro Moraleda Faculty of Education, Universidad Camilo Jose Cela
  • Marc A. Brackett Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Yale University

https://doi.org/10.17583/ijep.10970

Keywords:


Downloads

Abstract

Mental health during childhood is a growing social challenge with important implications for optimal development. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) interventions have been shown to prevent problems related to psychological maladjustment, as well as promote emotional well-being. This article aims to provide evidence for the impact of RULER (Recognizing, Understanding, Labeling, Expressing, Regulating), an evidence-based approach to SEL, on students’ mental health outcomes in Spanish public schools. A total of 207 primary school students (50.24% girls, mean age of 9 years) participated in the study. The teachers in the intervention school as compared to the control school received RULER instruction consisting of 15 hours of professional development training, 3 hours of follow-up, and SEL implementation guidelines throughout the school year. Students completed the Behavior Assessment System (BASC S-2). Results showed significant impacts in the RULER as compared to control school, including a reduction of clinical symptoms, such as anxiety and atypicality, as well as emotional symptoms, such as the sense of inadequacy among 9 to 12 year old students. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Aumaitre, A., Costas, E., Sánchez, M., Taberner, P., & Vall, J. (2021). Crecer saludablemente. Un análisis sobre la salud mental y el suicidio en la infancia y la adolescencia. Save the Children. https://www.savethechildren.es/actualidad/informe-crecer-saludablemente-analisis-sobre-la-salud-mental-y-el-suicidio-en-la

Google Scholar Crossref

Baumsteiger, R., Hoffmann, J. D., Castillo-Gualda, R., & Brackett, M. A. (2021). Enhancing school climate through social and emotional learning: effects of RULER in Mexican secondary schools. Learning Environments Research, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-021-09374-x

Google Scholar Crossref

Brackett, M. (2019). Permission to feel: Unlocking the power of emotions to help our kids, ourselves, and our society thrive. Celadon Books.

Google Scholar Crossref

Brackett, M. A., Bailey, C. S., Hoffmann, J. D., & Simmons, D. N. (2019). RULER: A theory-driven, systemic approach to social, emotional, and academic learning. Educational Psychologist, 54(3), 144-161. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2019.1614447

Google Scholar Crossref

Brackett, M. A., Rivers, S. E., Reyes, M. R., & Salovey, P. (2012). Enhancing academic performance and social and emotional competence with the RULER feeling words curriculum. Learning and Individual Differences, 22(2), 218-224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2010.10.002

Google Scholar Crossref

Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., & Rubin, G. J. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. The lancet, 395(10227), 912-920. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8

Google Scholar Crossref

Burns, T., & Gottschalk, F. (2019). Educating 21st Century Children: Emotional Well-Being in the Digital Age. Educational Research and Innovation. OECD Publishing. http://www.oecd.org

Google Scholar Crossref

Castillo R., Fernández-Berrocal P., & Brackett, M. (2013). Enhancing work engagement and teacher-student interaction with the RULER Approach to social and emotional learning: A pilot Study. Journal of Education and Training Studies, 1, 263-272.

Google Scholar Crossref

Castillo-Gualda, R., García, V., Pena. M., Galán, A., Brackett, M. A. (2017). Resultados preliminares del método RULER en la inteligencia emocional y el compromiso laboral de profesores Españoles. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational Psychology 15(3), 641-664. http://dx.doi.org/10.14204/ejrep.43/17068.

Google Scholar Crossref

Castillo, R., Salguero, J. M., Fernández-Berrocal, P., & Balluerka, N. (2013). Effects of an emotional intelligence intervention on aggression and empathy among adolescents. Journal of adolescence, 36(5), 883-892. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2013.07.001

Google Scholar Crossref

Castillo‐Gualda, R., Cabello, R., Herrero, M., Rodríguez‐Carvajal, R., & Fernández‐Berrocal, P. (2018). A three‐year emotional intelligence intervention to reduce adolescent aggression: The mediating role of unpleasant affectivity. Journal of research on adolescence, 28(1), 186-198. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12325

Google Scholar Crossref

Castillo-Gualda, R., Herrero, M., Rodríguez-Carvajal, R., Brackett, M. A., & Fernández-Berrocal, P. (2019). The role of emotional regulation ability, personality, and burnout among Spanish teachers. International Journal of Stress Management, 26(2), 146. https://doi.org/10.1037/str0000098

Google Scholar Crossref

Choi, A. (2018). Emotional well-being of children and adolescents: Recent trends and relevant factors. OECD Education Working Papers, (169), OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/41576fb2-en.

Google Scholar Crossref

Costello, E. J., Copeland, W., & Angold, A. (2011). Trends in psychopathology across the adolescent years: what changes when children become adolescents, and when adolescents become adults?. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52(10), 1015-1025. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2011.02446.x

Google Scholar Crossref

Durlak, J. A., Weissberg, R. P., Dymnicki, A. B., Taylor, R. D., & Schellinger, K. B. (2011). The impact of enhancing students’ social and emotional learning: A meta‐analysis of school‐based universal interventions. Child development, 82(1), 405-432. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01564.x

Google Scholar Crossref

Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., & Eggum, N. D. (2010). Emotion-related self-regulation and its relation to children's maladjustment. Annual review of clinical psychology, 6, 495-525. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.121208.131208

Google Scholar Crossref

González, J., Fernández, S., Pérez, E., & Santamaría, P. (2004). Adaptación española del sistema de evaluación de la conducta en niños y adolescentes: BASC. TEA Ediciones.

Google Scholar Crossref

Hagelskamp, C., Brackett, M. A., Rivers, S. E., & Salovey, P. (2013). Improving classroom quality with the RULER approach to social and emotional learning: Proximal and distal outcomes. American journal of community psychology, 51(3-4), 530-543. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-013-9570-x

Google Scholar Crossref

Jennings, P. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2009). The prosocial classroom: Teacher social and emotional competence in relation to student and classroom outcomes. Review of Educational Research, 79(1), 491–525. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654308325693

Google Scholar Crossref

Kessler, R. C., Angermeyer, M., Anthony, J. C., De Graaf, R. O. N., Demyttenaere, K., Gasquet, I., ... & Uestuen, T. B. (2007). Lifetime prevalence and age-of-onset distributions of mental disorders in the World Health Organization's World Mental Health Survey Initiative. World psychiatry, 6(3), 168-76.

Google Scholar Crossref

Kurki, K., Järvenoja, H., Järvelä, S., & Mykkänen, A. (2016). How teachers co-regulate children’s emotions and behaviour in socio-emotionally challenging situations in day-care settings. International Journal of Educational Research, 76, 76-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2016.02.002

Google Scholar Crossref

Mayer, J. D., Roberts, R. D., & Barsade, S. G. (2008). Human abilities: Emotional intelligence. Annual Review Psychology, 59, 507-536.

Google Scholar Crossref

Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence? In P. Salovey & D. J. Sluyter (Coords.), Emotional development and emotional intelligence: Educational implications, (3-34). Basic Books.

Google Scholar Crossref

MacCann, C., Jiang, Y., Brown, L. E., Double, K. S., Bucich, M., & Minbashian, A. (2020). Emotional intelligence predicts academic performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 146(2), 150. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000219

Google Scholar Crossref

McRae, K., Gross, J. J., Weber, J., Robertson, E. R., Sokol-Hessner, P., Ray, R. D., ... & Ochsner, K. N. (2012). The development of emotion regulation: an fMRI study of cognitive reappraisal in children, adolescents and young adults. Social cognitive and affective neuroscience, 7(1), 11-22. https://doi.org/10.1093/scan/nsr093

Google Scholar Crossref

OECD. (2015). Skills for social progress: the power of social and emotional skills. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264226159-en.

Google Scholar Crossref

Orgilés, M., Morales, A., Delvecchio, E., Mazzeschi, C., & Espada, J. P. (2020). Immediate psychological effects of the COVID-19 quarantine in youth from Italy and Spain. Frontiers in psychology, 11, 2986. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.579038

Google Scholar Crossref

Phillips, D., Prince, S., & Schiebelhut, L. (2004). Elementary school children's responses 3 months after the September 11 terrorist attacks: A study in Washington, DC. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 74(4), 509-528. https://doi.org/10.1037/0002-9432.74.4.509

Google Scholar Crossref

Phillips, D. A., Voran, M., Kisker, E., Howes, C., & Whitebook, M. (1994). Child care for children in poverty: Opportunity or inequity?. Child development, 65(2), 472-492. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1994.tb00764.x

Google Scholar Crossref

Racine, N., Cooke, J. E., Eirich, R., Korczak, D. J., McArthur, B., & Madigan, S. (2020). Child and adolescent mental illness during COVID-19: A rapid review. Psychiatry research, 292, 113307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113307

Google Scholar Crossref

Rivers, S. E., Brackett, M. A., Reyes, M. R., Elbertson, N. A. & Salovey, P. (2013). Improving the social and emotional climate of classrooms: A clustered randomized controlled trial testing The RULER Approach. Prevention Science, 14, 77-87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-012-0305-2

Google Scholar Crossref

Ruiz-Aranda, D., Castillo, R., Salguero, J. M., Cabello, R., Fernández-Berrocal, P., & Balluerka, N. (2012). Short-and midterm effects of emotional intelligence training on adolescent mental health. Journal of adolescent health, 51(5), 462-467. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.02.003

Google Scholar Crossref

Saarni, C. (1999). The development of emotional competence. Guilford press.

Google Scholar Crossref

Siegel, D. J. (2014). Tormenta cerebral: el poder y el propósito del cerebro adolescente. Alba Editorial.

Google Scholar Crossref

Taylor, R. D., Oberle, E., Durlak, J. A., & Weissberg, R. P. (2017). Promoting positive youth development through school‐based social and emotional learning interventions: A meta‐analysis of follow‐up effects. Child development, 88(4), 1156-1171. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12864

Google Scholar Crossref

UNESCO. (2020). Education for sustainable development. A roadmap. UNESCO. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2048-416x.2009.tb00140.x

Google Scholar Crossref

UNICEF. (2019). Increase in child and adolescent mental disorders spurs new push for action by UNICEF and WHO. https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/increase-child-andadolescent-mental-disorders-spurs-new-push-action-unicefand-who

Google Scholar Crossref

Vega, A., Cabello, R., Megías-Robles, A., Gómez-Leal, R., & Fernández-Berrocal, P. (2021). Emotional intelligence and aggressive behaviors in adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 23(4), 1173-1183. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838021991296

Google Scholar Crossref

Walker, E. F. (2002). Adolescent neurodevelopment and psychopathology. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11(1), 24-28. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8721.00161

Google Scholar Crossref

World Health Organization. (2016). Growing up unequal: Gender and socioeconomic differences in young people's health and well-being. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/326320

Google Scholar Crossref

World Health Organization. (‎2014)‎. Health for the world's adolescents: a second chance in the second decade: summary. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/112750

Google Scholar Crossref

Yang, W., Datu, J. A. D., Lin, X., Lau, M. M., & Li, H. (2019). Can early childhood curriculum enhance social-emotional competence in low-income children? A meta-analysis of the educational effects. Early Education and Development, 30(1), 36-59. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2018.1539557

Google Scholar Crossref

Downloads

Published

2023-06-24

Almetric

Dimensions

How to Cite

Castillo Gualda, R., Moraleda, A., & Brackett, M. A. (2023). Preventative initiatives to promote psychological adjustment among primary students: Findings of RULER Approach in Spanish public schools. International Journal of Educational Psychology, 12(2), 206–232. https://doi.org/10.17583/ijep.10970

Issue

Section

Articles