Supporting Preschoolers’ Mental Health and Academic Learning through the PROMEHS Program: A Training Study
There is compelling evidence that early school intervention programs enhance children’s development of life skills, with a positive knock-on effect on their behaviors and academic outcomes. To date, most universal interventions have displayed gains in children’s social-emotional competencies with a...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2023-06-01
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| Series: | Children |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/10/6/1070 |
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| author | Elisabetta Conte Valeria Cavioni Veronica Ornaghi Alessia Agliati Sabina Gandellini Margarida Frade Santos Anabela Caetano Santos Celeste Simões Ilaria Grazzani |
| author_facet | Elisabetta Conte Valeria Cavioni Veronica Ornaghi Alessia Agliati Sabina Gandellini Margarida Frade Santos Anabela Caetano Santos Celeste Simões Ilaria Grazzani |
| author_sort | Elisabetta Conte |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | There is compelling evidence that early school intervention programs enhance children’s development of life skills, with a positive knock-on effect on their behaviors and academic outcomes. To date, most universal interventions have displayed gains in children’s social-emotional competencies with a limited reduction in problem behaviors. This may depend on programs’ curricula focused to a greater extent on preschoolers’ social-emotional competencies rather than problem behaviors. Promoting Mental Health at Schools (PROMEHS) is a European, school-based, universal mental health program explicitly focused on both promoting students’ mental health and preventing negative conduct by adopting a whole-school approach. In this study, we set out to evaluate the effectiveness of the program for Italian and Portuguese preschoolers. We recruited 784 children (age range = 4–5 years), assigning them to either an experimental group (six months’ participation in the PROMEHS program under the guidance of their teachers, who had received ad hoc training) or a waiting list group (no intervention). We found that PROMEHS improved preschoolers’ social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies, prosocial behavior, and academic outcomes. The more practical activities were carried out at school, the more children’s SEL competencies increased, and the more their internalizing and externalizing behaviors decreased. Furthermore, marginalized and disadvantaged children were those who benefited most from the program, displaying both greater improvements in SEL and more marked decreases in internalizing problems compared to the rest of the sample. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T02:36:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0e19a13558824976b1c42c5413529762 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-9067 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T02:36:27Z |
| publishDate | 2023-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Children |
| spelling | doaj.art-0e19a13558824976b1c42c54135297622023-11-18T09:51:09ZengMDPI AGChildren2227-90672023-06-01106107010.3390/children10061070Supporting Preschoolers’ Mental Health and Academic Learning through the PROMEHS Program: A Training StudyElisabetta Conte0Valeria Cavioni1Veronica Ornaghi2Alessia Agliati3Sabina Gandellini4Margarida Frade Santos5Anabela Caetano Santos6Celeste Simões7Ilaria Grazzani8“R. Massa” Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy“R. Massa” Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy“R. Massa” Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy“R. Massa” Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy“R. Massa” Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, ItalyDepartment of Education, Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, 1495-751 Lisbon, PortugalDepartment of Education, Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, 1495-751 Lisbon, PortugalDepartment of Education, Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, 1495-751 Lisbon, Portugal“R. Massa” Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, ItalyThere is compelling evidence that early school intervention programs enhance children’s development of life skills, with a positive knock-on effect on their behaviors and academic outcomes. To date, most universal interventions have displayed gains in children’s social-emotional competencies with a limited reduction in problem behaviors. This may depend on programs’ curricula focused to a greater extent on preschoolers’ social-emotional competencies rather than problem behaviors. Promoting Mental Health at Schools (PROMEHS) is a European, school-based, universal mental health program explicitly focused on both promoting students’ mental health and preventing negative conduct by adopting a whole-school approach. In this study, we set out to evaluate the effectiveness of the program for Italian and Portuguese preschoolers. We recruited 784 children (age range = 4–5 years), assigning them to either an experimental group (six months’ participation in the PROMEHS program under the guidance of their teachers, who had received ad hoc training) or a waiting list group (no intervention). We found that PROMEHS improved preschoolers’ social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies, prosocial behavior, and academic outcomes. The more practical activities were carried out at school, the more children’s SEL competencies increased, and the more their internalizing and externalizing behaviors decreased. Furthermore, marginalized and disadvantaged children were those who benefited most from the program, displaying both greater improvements in SEL and more marked decreases in internalizing problems compared to the rest of the sample.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/10/6/1070social-emotional learningprosocial behaviorproblem behaviorsacademic outcomesschool mental healthPROMEHS |
| spellingShingle | Elisabetta Conte Valeria Cavioni Veronica Ornaghi Alessia Agliati Sabina Gandellini Margarida Frade Santos Anabela Caetano Santos Celeste Simões Ilaria Grazzani Supporting Preschoolers’ Mental Health and Academic Learning through the PROMEHS Program: A Training Study Children social-emotional learning prosocial behavior problem behaviors academic outcomes school mental health PROMEHS |
| title | Supporting Preschoolers’ Mental Health and Academic Learning through the PROMEHS Program: A Training Study |
| title_full | Supporting Preschoolers’ Mental Health and Academic Learning through the PROMEHS Program: A Training Study |
| title_fullStr | Supporting Preschoolers’ Mental Health and Academic Learning through the PROMEHS Program: A Training Study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Supporting Preschoolers’ Mental Health and Academic Learning through the PROMEHS Program: A Training Study |
| title_short | Supporting Preschoolers’ Mental Health and Academic Learning through the PROMEHS Program: A Training Study |
| title_sort | supporting preschoolers mental health and academic learning through the promehs program a training study |
| topic | social-emotional learning prosocial behavior problem behaviors academic outcomes school mental health PROMEHS |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/10/6/1070 |
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