ABSTRACT

Social-emotional competencies constitute protective factors against the development of early onset behavioral problems. Also, both social as well as emotional competencies are relatively stable across lifespan, from preschool to adulthood. As a result, the optimal development of such competencies in preschoolers would have long term positive effects. However, there are only a few empirically validated prevention programs aiming the social-emotional competence development in preschool children. Our goal was to develop a primary prevention program implemented at classroom level, targeting 5-year-old preschool children (N=52). In order to assess the efficacy of the program, we used a quasi-experimental design. The intervention yielded significant differences between the experimental and control group on all measures in the expected direction, except for social competencies evaluated by parents. Besides statistic significance, the size effects were in the medium and large range, providing further practical relevance for the intervention. In sum, the intervention proved its short-term effectiveness, but more data on medium and long-term effects are needed to draw final conclusions.

KEYWORDS: prevention program, social-emotional competence, preschool.

PAGES: 285-307