This study analyzes the relationship between emotion understanding and school achievement in children of primary school, considering age, gender, fluid intelligence, mother’s educational level and social competence. In this study participated 406 children of primary school. The instruments used were the Test of Emotion Comprehension, Colored Progressive Matrices of Raven, Socially Action and Interpersonal Problem Solving Scale. The structural equation model showed the relationship between the emotion understanding and school performance depends on a mediator variable that in the context of the study was designated social competence. Age appear as an explanatory factor of the differences found, the mother’s educational level only predicts significantly social emotional competence, fluid intelligence is a predictor of emotion understanding, school achievement and social emotional competence. Regarding the influence of sex, emotional understanding does not emerge as a significant predictor of social emotional competence in girls or boys. Multiple relationships between the various factors associated with school achievement and social emotional competence are discussed as well as their implications in promoting child development and school success.

This paper intends to evaluate the Outdoor Training methodology, widely used by consultants working for the emotional and social skills of entrepreneurs, in order to verify if it is also valid for working with adolescents, specifically, for developing their emotional intelligence skills. With this in mind, we chose an experimental study involving two groups of 30 adolescents, one as an experimental group and the other as a control group. They were students of the Manchester United Soccer Schools, Lisbon, Portugal. For the assessment of emotional intelligence, we used the Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory: Youth Version. The data obtained point to the evidence of improvements in the emotional skills of adaptability, interpersonal relationships, positive mood, and stress management.