IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/chinre/v10y2017i2d10.1007_s12187-016-9387-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Adopting the Emotions Course in the Italian Context: A Pilot Study to Test Effects on Social-Emotional Competence in Preschool Children

Author

Listed:
  • Rosanna Maggio

    (University of Palermo)

  • Carla Zappulla

    (University of Palermo)

  • Ugo Pace

    (Università Kore di Enna (UKE), Cittadella Universitaria)

  • Carroll E. Izard

    (University of Delaware)

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to adopt the Emotions Course (EC) in the Italian context and to examine preliminarily its effectiveness in accelerating the social-emotional competence and reducing maladaptive behaviors in preschool children. The study involved 143 children (73 males and 70 females) aged 3–5 years (M = 4.4 years, SD = .74), divided into two groups: 1) an experimental group (N = 69; 34 males and 35 females), consisting of classes in which teachers realized the EC, integrating it in their usual educational plan; 2) a control group (N = 74; 39 males and 35 females), consisting of classes in which teachers exclusively followed their usual educational plan that did not include the EC. Guided by previous studies (Izard et al. in Early Education and Development 15:407–422, 2004; Izard et al. in Development and Psychopathology 20:369–397 2008a), we hypothesized that, compared to the control condition, in the treatment group the EC would show greater increases in emotion knowledge (Hypothesis 1) and emotion regulation/utilization (Hypothesis 2), and greater increases in social competence along with greater decreases in externalized and internalized behaviors (Hypothesis 3). Results of hierarchical linear modeling analyses confirmed the first two hypotheses and partially supported the third. The results showed that children increased emotion knowledge, emotion regulation/utilization and social competence.

Suggested Citation

  • Rosanna Maggio & Carla Zappulla & Ugo Pace & Carroll E. Izard, 2017. "Adopting the Emotions Course in the Italian Context: A Pilot Study to Test Effects on Social-Emotional Competence in Preschool Children," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 10(2), pages 571-590, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:chinre:v:10:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s12187-016-9387-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s12187-016-9387-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12187-016-9387-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12187-016-9387-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:chinre:v:10:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s12187-016-9387-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.