Antunes Rita, Alexandre Joana, Guedes Maryse, Filipe Marisa G, Veríssimo Manuela
Center for Research in Psychology for Positive Development, Lusíada University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
CUF Descobertas Hospital, Lisbon, Portugal.
Front Psychol. 2023 Aug 28;14:1233335. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1233335. eCollection 2023.
"Intergalactic World" is a new social-emotional program designed to reduce psychopathological symptoms and improve social and emotional skills in children aged 8-12. This study aims to evaluate the program's benefits from teachers' and caregivers' perspectives, focusing on internalizing and externalizing behaviors.
The findings were obtained through self-reported measures using a pretest-posttest design with a follow-up period, but with no control group. One hundred fifty-four children ( age = 9.66, = 0.78) participated in this intervention study. Eleven teachers completed the Teacher's Report Form (TRF) for these children, and 133 caregivers completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Participants without caregivers' reports were excluded from the analysis. Data were collected at three-time points: before the intervention (T1), immediately after (T2), and 6 months after the implementation of the program (T3).
Results ( = 133) showed an effect of time on the Internalization scores (at T3 for teachers and T2 and T3 for caregivers) with no gender effect and a decrease in the perception of externalizing behaviors with a gender effect: Boys were perceived as exhibiting more externalizing behaviors than girls. However, these behaviors significantly decrease at T3 for teachers and at T2 and T3 for caregivers.
Despite its limitations, this study highlights the benefits of employing social-emotional programs to help reduce children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors. A multi-informant approach enables a comprehensive analysis and provides insights into the child's significant contexts and interactions with adults.
“星际世界”是一项全新的社会情感项目，旨在减轻8至12岁儿童的心理病理症状，提高其社交和情感技能。本研究旨在从教师和照顾者的角度评估该项目的益处，重点关注内化行为和外化行为。
研究结果通过自我报告测量获得，采用前后测设计并设有随访期，但未设对照组。154名儿童（年龄=9.66，标准差=0.78）参与了这项干预研究。11名教师为这些儿童填写了教师报告表（TRF），133名照顾者填写了儿童行为检查表（CBCL）。没有照顾者报告的参与者被排除在分析之外。在三个时间点收集数据：干预前（T1）、干预后立即（T2）以及项目实施后6个月（T3）。
结果（n=133）显示，时间对内化得分有影响（教师在T3时，照顾者在T2和T3时），无性别效应；外化行为认知有下降，存在性别效应：男孩被认为比女孩表现出更多外化行为。然而，教师在T3时以及照顾者在T2和T3时，这些行为显著减少。
尽管存在局限性，但本研究凸显了采用社会情感项目帮助减少儿童内化和外化行为的益处。多信息提供者方法能够进行全面分析，并深入了解儿童的重要背景以及与成年人的互动情况。
