María-Isabel Polo-Del-Río

El aprendizaje cooperativo es utilizado en las aulas con la finalidad de favorecer el trabajo en equipo, la interacción con los compañeros y mejorar el rendimiento académico. Por otro lado, los problemas comportamentales y emocionales, referidos a conductas disruptivas en el aula, hiperactividad, o déficit de atención, se traducen en comportamientos relacionados con la agresión, oposición a pautas sociales, baja tolerancia a la frustración, que ocurren durante la infancia y adolescencia e inciden negativamente en el desarrollo personal, social y familiar, repercutiendo en los resultados escolares. El objetivo de este estudio es establecer una relación entre el aprendizaje cooperativo en el aula y problemas externalizantes en estudiantes de Educación Primaria. Para ello participaron un total de 490 estudiantes de 5º y 6º de Primaria, pertenecientes a 28 aulas, siendo el 56,3% mujeres, con una media de edad de 10,56 años. Se llevó a cabo un análisis multinivel apoyándose en un modelo ANOVA de efectos aleatorios, así como un análisis de regresión que nos permitiría comprobar cómo ciertas variables estudiadas del nivel aula relativas a los componentes del aprendizaje cooperativo van a incidir en los problemas externalizantes. Los resultados indican que existen diferencias estadísticamente significativas de los problemas externalizantes en función por una parte, de la cooperación global en el aula, y por otro lado, de las habilidades sociales y responsabilidad. Ello nos permite concluir que la metodología basada en el aprendizaje cooperativo en el aula resulta eficaz para dirigir el comportamiento del estudiante con problemas externalizantes, incidiendo positivamente en el bienestar psicológico y emocional, el intercambio de apoyo social, el desarrollo de la responsabilidad y de las habilidades sociales, así como en la reducción de ansiedad y estrés.

Sexual victimization in children and adolescents is a serious form of child abuse that violates the rights of children and adolescents, and that can lead t

The health crisis caused by COVID-19 led to a series of restrictive measures worldwide. Amongst them, a period of lockdown that resulted in a decrease in social contact, which had a series of effects at the emotional, educational, and social levels, the greatest concern being the mental health effects in minors. The aim of this study is to analyse mental health disorders affecting Primary Education students before and during the pandemic, at emotional, social and behavioural levels. A total of 1045 students from different educational centres, in 5th and 6th year of Primary Education, of both sexes and aged between 10 and 12 years old, took part in the study. The instrument used was the “Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, SDQ”, which measures mental health disorders in minors. The results indicate that during the pandemic there was an increase in emotional problems among minors, alongside a decrease in hyperactivity, conduct problems, and peer-related problems. Social distancing during the pandemic may have acted as a key mediating variable in the observed outcomes. It is concluded that these results are important in preventing psychological effects on the mental health of minors in crisis situations.

In order to prevent the development of emotional and behavioral problems, risk and protective factors must be identified. This study aims to establish a link between perceived parental humor and children mental health. The sample comprises 762 pupils aged 10 to 15 (M = 12.23; SD = 1.12), who completed self-reports evaluating perceived parental humor (EEE-H) and their own emotional and behavioral strengths and difficulties (SDQ). The results indicate that parental humor is negatively associated with internalizing problems in children; no association with externalizing problems is observed. According to the study, girls who perceive low parental humor are the most likely to display internalizing problems, while girls perceiving high parental humor are the least likely to do so. Parental humor, characterized by calmness, cheerfulness, and optimism, is a protective factor against internalizing problems in children, especially girls. We recommend training for parents and training and intervention programs for families to encourage activities that boost parental humor.

Last year, the COVID-19 pandemic had severe consequences on the health and well-being of millions of people. Different studies try to identify the main effects that the crisis and several lockdowns have had on the citizens’ mental health. This research analyses the coping strategies generated by students from a community group and a clinical group in response to this crisis, using the Coping Responses Inventory—Adult Form (CRI-A) by Moos with a sample of 1074 students of Universidad de Extremadura. Multivariate analysis and receiver operating characteristic curve analysis have been carried out, revealing, amongst other things, a greater predisposition of the clinical sample towards factors such as seeking guidance and support, cognitive avoidance or emotional discharge. Results show that students with prior mental health problems perform an unhealthy coping response based on avoidance strategies. This group of students suffers a double source of distress and anxiety, one derived from their prior psychopathologic problems and the stress of the lockdown and another one originating from an inefficient coping response, which makes coping strategies raise levels of distress and anxiety.

The relationship of disabled persons with their environment is fundamental. Attitudes towards them, understood as the social constructs of those around them, play a key role in a person’s development and future, as they are one of the fundamental elements that can facilitate or hinder the inclusion process. Our work examines the need to implement educational and awareness-raising actions and programs that contemplate intervention strategies based on education and direct contact with disabled persons. The main objective of the study was to analyze the effect of a Program for Changing Attitudes towards Persons with Disabilities on a group of secondary school students (11 to 15 years of age), assigning 770 to the experimental group and 105 to the control group. The evaluation instrument used was the “Brief Questionnaire of Attitudes towards Persons with Disabilities for Adolescents, CBAD-12A”. The results have demonstrated the efficacy of the intervention for the experimental group, as it was possible to attribute the changes in attitude to the effect of the Program. Specifically, an improvement in attitudes was found in all three factors of the questionnaire (Acceptance-Rejection, Competence and Opportunity) after the intervention.

Previous research has identified the main predictors of being a victim of school bullying. This study focused on the phenomenon of school bullying and its relationship with self-perceived emotional intelligence. The main aim was to analyze the mediating effect of emotional attention, clarity, and repair in relation to school victimization. The sample was made up of 822 primary school pupils from 10 public schools. Data were collected through self-reports, exploring the profile of victims of school bullying, and the dimensions of self-perceived emotional intelligence (PEI). A multivariate analysis and multinomial regression showed a relationship between the two variables; the probability of being a victim of school bullying was 5.14 times higher among pupils with low clarity, 2.72 times higher among pupils with low repair, and 2.62 times higher among pupils with excessive attention. The results demonstrated that the better their emotional regulation and understanding, the less likely pupils are to be victims of school bullying. This confirmed that adequate emotional attention and excellent emotional clarity and repair are protective factors against victimization.

The purpose of this article is to create and validate a brief instrument to evaluate attitudes towards persons with disabilities among the adolescent population between 12 and 16 years of age. Disability is currently understood from a contextual perspective (ecological model of disability), as the interaction of a person with her/his surroundings. As part of this interaction, the negative attitudes and expectations towards those with disabilities is still a reason for analysis, as it constitutes one of the main barriers to their inclusion in society. The evaluation of these attitudes in different age groups, using new analytical tools and instruments, is essential for the subsequent design and implementation of intervention measures in order to reverse the said attitudes and improve the collective’s place in society. In this study, there were 1282 participants, students between 12 and 16 years of age. A random selection was carried out, choosing fourteen educational centers in order to analyze the students’ attitudes towards persons with disabilities. The final result was the creation of the CBAD-12A questionnaire, made up of 12 Likert-type items, grouped into three factors: acceptance/rejection, competence/limitation, and equal opportunities. It has been demonstrated that the questionnaire possesses adequate psychometric characteristics, providing research with a new instrument to measure attitudes towards disability. The said questionnaire is useful as a diagnostic and/or predictive measure, allowing us to discover and generate interventions aimed at improving the attitudes of the adolescent population towards those with a disability.

Parenting styles have been used to explain the effects of family socialization on children’s learning skills. In this research, we have considered build an instrument for evaluating academic goals in the primary school stage, that allows us determine the relationships between the different types of goals and the different ways of establishing and policing the rules that the participants perceive from their parents. Those participating in this research were 550 pupils from of primary education. The Questionnaire on Academic Goals (QAG) has highly acceptable psychometric characteriztics. The analysis has shown the existence of four solid, well-defined factors. The relationships between the different types of goals and the different ways of establishing and policing the rules are verified. The pupils classified in the groups concerning the goals of social evaluation and reward were characterized by a more indulgent parenting style, determined by an absence of rules and limits for their children’s behavior. On the other hand, those pupils classified in the groups concerning the goals of learning and achievement were characterized by parents with an inductive style, determined by the use of reasoning and explanations towards their children in so far as the consequences of breaking the rules.

The aim of this research is to find out what type of task interdependence is generated in work teams in university contexts and to analyze the capacity to discriminate the type of task interdependence of some of the variables that are decisive for the team’s success. The sample consisted of 808 teaching students from six Spanish universities. Self-report measures were taken, such as task interdependence, attitudes towards teamwork, team potency, and social team skills. The results show that the students who carry out the tasks in teams with high interdependence are minority. However, those who work with high interdependence, present more positive attitudes towards teamwork, greater team potency, and more social skills in receiving information and self-assertion. Likewise, high interdependence would be characterized by high scores in both the attitudes and team potency. However, attitude is the variable that better discriminates the type of task interdependence, allowing for an excellent level of discrimination of high interdependence.