Daniel Grande, Miguel Á. Carrasco & Francisco Pablo Holgado-Tello
A recent study shows that socio-emotional training in secondary school tutorials significantly improves empathy, friendship, and solidarity in adolescents.
Adolescence is a critical stage for the construction of personal and social identity. Although the school environment offers an ideal space for the universal learning of interpersonal competencies, the number of educational programs integrated into the Secondary school curriculum that possess solid empirical backing remains limited.
To address this gap, a new scientific study evaluated the effectiveness of the «Potencia tus Habilidades» («Enhance Your Skills») program within the tutorial action plan of Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE). In this research, authors Daniel Grande, Miguel Á. Carrasco, and Francisco Pablo Holgado-Tello (from UNED, Spain) analyzed how a structured training program can positively influence students’ psychological development.
Using a controlled methodological design involving 313 adolescents aged between 11 and 13 years, the program implemented 8 sessions per term focused on three key pillars: empathy, friendship, and solidarity. Statistical analyses revealed significant improvements in the global scores of the trained competencies within the intervention group. However, the researchers observed no significant changes in the specific conflict and balance dimensions of friendship, suggesting that these areas require more explicitly targeted actions in the program’s future design.
Participants provided highly positive ratings regarding usability, acceptance, and overall satisfaction. The findings highlight the role of contemporary schools as essential settings that extend beyond strictly academic content, providing young people with protective factors against psychosocial risks and fostering healthy interpersonal development.
