No abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the development of a resilience curriculum in early years and primary schools to enhance social inclusion, equity and social justice amongst European communities, particularly amongst disadvantaged and vulnerable ones, through quality education. It defines educational resilience in terms of academic, social and emotional growth in the face of life challenges; discusses the conceptual framework and key principles underpinning the curriculum; and presents the six major content areas of the curriculum. Finally, it presents the preliminary findings of a pilot project on the implementation of the curriculum in more than 200 classrooms in about 80 early and primary schools in six European countries. Design/methodology/approach – The curriculum was first drafted collaboratively amongst the six partners on the basis of the existing literature in the promotion of resilience in early years and primary schools, with a particular focus to European realities. Once it was internally reviewed, it was piloted in 200 early years and primary school classrooms in six European countries, with each of the six partners implementing one theme. Data collection included teacher reflective diaries, classroom checklists, semi-structured interviews with teachers and focus groups with students. Findings – The preliminary results from the pilot evaluation of the curriculum in 199 classrooms totalling 1,935 students across six countries indicate that both the teachers and the learners overwhelmingly found the curriculum highly enjoyable, useful, relevant and easy to use. They looked forward to the possibility of having the programme on a full-time basis as part of the general curriculum in the future. The teachers reported a positive moderate change in learners’ behaviour related to the theme implemented and argued that for the implementation to be effective, it needs to take place throughout the whole year. A number of modifications have been on the basis of the teachers’ and learners’ feedback. Originality/value – This is the first resilience curriculum for early years and primary schools in Europe. While it seeks to address the needs of vulnerable children such as Roma children, immigrant and refugee children and children with individual educational needs, it does so within an assets-based, developmental, inclusive and culturally responsive approach, thus avoiding potential labelling and stigmatising, while promoting positive development and growth. It puts the onus on the classroom teacher, in collaboration with parents and other stakeholders, in implementing the curriculum in the classroom.

ObjectivesThe consequences of long-lasting restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic have become a topical question in the latest research. The present study aims to analyze longitudinal changes in adolescents’ social emotional skills, resilience, and behavioral problems. Moreover, the study addresses the impact of adolescents’ social emotional learning on changes in their resilience and behavioral problems over the course of seven months of the pandemic.MethodsThe Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2) measuring points were in October 2020 and May 2021, characterized by high mortality rates and strict restrictions in Europe. For all three countries combined, 512 questionnaires were answered by both adolescents (aged 11-13 and 14-16 years) and their parents. The SSIS-SEL and SDQ student self-report and parent forms were used to evaluate adolescents’ social emotional skills and behavioral problems. The CD-RISC-10 scale was administered to adolescents to measure their self-reported resilience. Several multilevel models were fitted to investigate the changes in adolescents’ social emotional skills, resilience, and behavioral problems, controlling for age and gender. Correlation analysis was carried out to investigate how changes in the adolescents’ social emotional skills were associated with changes in their resilience and mental health adjustment.ResultsComparing T1 and T2 evaluations, adolescents claim they have more behavioral problems, have less social emotional skills, and are less prosocial than perceived by their parents, and this result applies across all countries and age groups. Both informants agree that COVID-19 had a negative impact, reporting an increment in the mean internalizing and externalizing difficulties scores and reductions in social emotional skills, prosocial behavior, and resilience scores. However, these changes are not very conspicuous, and most of them are not significant. Correlation analysis shows that changes in adolescents’ social emotional skills are negatively and significantly related to changes in internalized and externalized problems and positively and significantly related to changes in prosocial behavior and resilience. This implies that adolescents who experienced larger development in social emotional learning also experienced more increase in resilience and prosocial behavior and a decrease in difficulties.ConclusionDue to its longitudinal design, sample size, and multi-informant approach, this study adds to a deeper understanding of the pandemic’s consequences on adolescents’ mental health.

No abstract

Background In typical aging, it is possible to observe a decline in psychomotor domains, such as balance or global and fine motor skills as well as a cognitive and functional decline. Although, it is not clear which psychomotor domains are mostly affected in elderly with dementia and the association with the cognitive and functional level. Objective To identify the correlation between psychomotor, cognitive, and functional skills, and seeking whether there are differences among persons with and without dementia. Design and Methods A total of 120 persons with dementia (ages between 61 and 99 years old; mean age 80.6 ± 7.4) and 377 persons without dementia (ages between 60 and 99 years old; mean age 77.2 ± 8.7) were recruited from nursing homes, day-care centers, and home care. Consenting participants were assessed in psychomotor, cognitive, and functional domains using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) to assess cognitive impairment, the Barthel Index (BI), and Lawton Index (LI) to identify basic and instrumental activities of daily living and a Portuguese Version of Éxamen Geronto-Psychomoteur (P-EGP) to evaluate psychomotor skills. Results People with dementia showed a higher percentage of cognitive deficit and higher level of dependency in basic and instrumental activities of daily living. Further, findings also showed significant differences in psychomotor domains and total of P-EGP, with exception of Joint Mobilizations of Upper and Lower Limbs. There were moderate to strong correlations between the totals of the scales, and between the totals and domains. Conclusions The population with dementia has higher percentage of cognitive deficit, higher dependency on the performance of basic and instrumental activities of daily living and poorer psychomotor performance, except in joint mobilizations. It was also possible to find strong correlations between the total of P-EGP and the total of cognitive and functional scales. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Aging involves changes in psychomotor performance. Few studies are focused on psychomotor skills among older people due, in part, to the inexistence of valid instruments in the field. The purpose of this article is to analyze the factor structure model of the Portuguese version of Exámen Géronto-Psychomoteur. The confirmatory factor analysis was completed in a sample of 497 older persons, aged between 60 and 99 years, with and without dementia (74.4% female; M = 78.0; standard deviation = 8.6). A baseline one-factor model was compared against 2 three-factor models (first and second order) that were developed based on the previous exploratory factor analysis. Fit indices for the one-factor model were slightly higher when compared with other models; however, the second-order model seems to be more representative of human behavior. The results of this study provide evidence to support a three-factor model: cognition, motor function, and physical aspects.

Resilience is an individual’s ability to adapt successfully to and persevere during and after significant challenges. Resilience programmes based on a socioemotional learning approach have been associated with an increase in protextive factors (e.g., prosocial competencies), improvements in physical and mental health, and a decrease in internalised and externalised symptoms. The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of the RESCUR curriculum implemented in Portuguese schools on students’ academic, behavioural, and socioemotional outcomes, based on child and teacher reports. Participants included 1,084 children (53.2% male) aged 3-15 ( M = 7.24, SD = 2.31). A quasi-experimental study compared outcomes for an experimental intervention group (AIG) with a waiting list control group (WG). The results showed the RESCUR programme decreased mental health difficulties while increasing both prosocial behaviours and well-being. In addition, academic performance increased for those in preschool after implementation. Both teachers and children consistently reported positive behavioural changes in resilience-related competencies after implementing RESCUR. Our findings contribute to the recent research on the potential of RESCUR to address key socioemotional competencies and improve relevant protextive factors. Study limitations and future recommendations are addressed.

No abstract