Paula Molinero-González

RESUMEN Antecedentes: La aceptación o rechazo por parte de los iguales es clave para el desarrollo personal y social del alumnado. El rechazo temprano puede dificultar la adquisición de habilidades sociales y la formación de relaciones satisfactorias, afectando negativamente a los estudiantes. Método: El objetivo de este estudio es profundizar en los motivos por los que alumnado de Educación Infantil (3 a 6 años) gusta o no a sus iguales, analizando las razones de sus compañeros que determinan su estatus sociométrico de preferidos o rechazados. Resultados: Se utilizó un cuestionario sociométrico y datos identificativos de 697 estudiantes (52,7% varones) de 37 aulas de Castilla y León, identificando a 69 estudiantes rechazados (9,9%) y 63 preferidos (9,1%). Los motivos más comunes para ser rechazado son la agresividad y comportamientos disruptivos o inmaduros, mientras que las razones para ser preferido están relacionadas con afinidad, juegos compartidos y apoyo emocional. Conclusión: Esto resalta la importancia de fomentar intervenciones que promuevan el juego y el desarrollo socioemocional, además de reducir los comportamientos disruptivos. La investigación también subraya la relevancia de estudiar los factores de protección que influyen en la aceptación de los rechazados y la necesidad de analizar las diferencias de género en las razones de rechazo o preferencia.

Peer rejection occurs at all stages of education, including infant education, and entails serious consequences, both immediately and in the future, in all areas of children’s development. This study aims to gain insight into the link between peer rejection and academic performance, mediated by the presence of special educational needs (SEN). The study involved the participation of 758 students (397 male) in the second cycle of early childhood education (3–6 years old) in Spain who were given a sociometric test to ascertain the sociometric distribution of each classroom. Their teachers were asked to record the academic performance of each student in terms of language, logic-mathematics, psychomotor ability, and overall performance. Teachers were also asked to identify whether or not students had SEN. By applying a multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) that considered the presence or otherwise of peer rejection and the presence or otherwise of SEN as independent variables, results show that rejected students display poorer academic performance in all areas. The same was also found to be true for those with SEN. As a result, rejected students with SEN are seen to exhibit the poorest academic performance and suffer two-fold stigmatisation.

El rechazo entre iguales es un fenómeno muy estudiando en educación secundaria y primaria, dadas las consecuencias negativas presentes y futuras que tiene en el estudiante. Sin embargo, no ha sido tan estudiando en edades tempranas, siendo la educación infantil una etapa de gran importancia, ya que es cuando se empiezan a forjar las relaciones sociales, y su influencia es decisiva en el desarrollo socioemocional posterior. Este estudio tiene por objetivo conocer la distribución sociométrica en el segundo ciclo de educación infantil, teniendo en cuenta el género, el curso y si los estudiantes tienen, o no, necesidades educativas específicas de apoyo educativo. Además, se profundiza en los motivos que los estudiantes argumentan para aceptar o rechazar a sus iguales. Han participado 2116 niños y niñas de 105 aulas de los tres cursos del segundo ciclo de educación infantil. Mediante un procedimiento sociométrico, se obtiene que un 11.5% son rechazados, 8.3% preferidos, 6.7% ignorados, 2.5% controvertidos, y 71% medios. El porcentaje de niños rechazados es similar en los tres cursos, y significativamente superior al de las niñas, al igual que aquellos que presentan necesidades educativas. Han informado de 11989 motivos, 7876 de aceptación, y 4113 de rechazo, agrupados en 34 categorías. Las principales razones de aceptación son el tener afinidad, disfrutar de juegos compartidos y las características de personalidad, mientras que la de rechazo hace referencia a la agresividad física, junto a las conductas inmaduras, o molestas con los demás. Las niñas argumentan más razones de reciprocidad afectiva, mientras que los niños son menos expresivos o no son conscientes de las causas. Se discuten implicaciones educativas a tener en cuenta en las aulas para mejorar la aceptación, integración y clima de aula.

Revista Iberoamericana de Psicología y Salud

In the early years of schooling, peer groups are key to fostering students’ overall learning and development. Yet it has been found that around 10% of children suffer from peer rejection in the classroom, with this problem entailing negative consequences both in the short and long term. The problem proves difficult for adults to detect, which usually leads to a delay in measures being taken to intervene and prevent it. This study applies an experimental design with pre-test and post-test measurements in two groups—experimental and control—in order to address the problem of rejection in the early years of schooling. It explores aspects such as sociometric type, degree of victimisation, social and antisocial behaviour, as well as problematic situations among 637 students at six schools. We then implement an intervention programme for socioemotional competence throughout a school year in an effort to improve students’ social skills and relationships, focusing specifically on preventing and reducing the rejection experienced by some of these children. The programme comprises 35 teaching activities and strategies that promote the development of competences for student inclusion (curbing aggression, encouraging teamwork, fostering self-esteem, etc.) and that seek to involve all students, teachers, and relatives by offering an array of complementary resources that enrich the initiatives applied (a programme calendar, assessment notebook, questionnaires, related website, material resources). After the intervention programme, it was found that the experimental group had reduced the percentage of students who suffered rejection from 9.9% to 7.3%, although the same was not true of the control group, which went from 9.5% of rejected students to 10.2%. The reduction in the percentage of rejected students in the experimental group after the application of the programme is an encouraging result that invites us to continue working on more comprehensive interventions to prevent and reduce this phenomenon.

Emotional intelligence is a key social skill for teachers. The teaching profession requires programmes that are geared towards emotional education that will enable teachers to develop emotional intelligence in order to foster their general well-being. The aims of this paper were: firstly, to test the effectiveness of the programme in emotional education implemented through group segmentation based on teachers’ sociodemographic and work profile factors, and secondly, to ascertain whether there were any significant differences in the factors that make up the model of emotional intelligence with regard to the sociodemographic and work variables of teachers in the experimental group in a pre–post analysis study. The design of the research was experimental. The sample was made up of 351 infant and primary education teachers, 190 in the experimental group and 161 in the control group. We used the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 together with a questionnaire to define teachers’ sociodemographic and work profiles. Implementing the emotional education programme led to significant differences in the three factors of emotional intelligence (perception, understanding and emotional regulation) depending on the sociodemographic and work profile of the teachers in the experimental group. Applying segmentation allows us to conclude that intervention programmes should be adapted to the sociodemographic and work profile of the participant group. When designing programmes, the method considered should be active, participative, flexible and focused on the teachers’ own experience.

Emotional intelligence is the key to students’ psychological-social well-being and academic performance, and teachers must provide socioemotional education in the classroom. To achieve this, teachers must display high levels of socioemotional skills that ensure their own personal, social, and career well-being and, as a result, that of their students. This study seeks to gain an insight into the levels of socioemotional skills of emotional perception, emotional understanding, and emotional regulation and how these are linked to the sociodemographic and career profile of teachers in infant and primary education. For this, we surveyed 351 teachers—310 female and 41 male—aged between 20 and 69. We used the Trait Meta-Mood Scale-24 (TMMS-24) together with a questionnaire (ad hoc) to determine the sociodemographic and career profile of participating teachers. Statistical analysis of the data showed that gender impacts on emotional regulation and emotional perception, while age and number of the children were also seen to have significant difference on emotional regulation and emotional perception. In contrast, professional qualifications were only seen to affect emotional perception. The variable reflecting the level at which staff teach showed significant difference on emotional perception and emotional understanding, while administrative posts held by teachers also demonstrated significant difference on their emotional understanding. The results confirm that sociodemographic and work-related variables impact the level of socioemotional skills of infant and primary education teachers. These aspects should be taken into account in the structure and planning of training aimed at developing socioemotional skills in order to ensure their success.