Effectiveness of psycho-educational intervention to promote mental health focused on emotional intelligence in middle-school.

Purpose: The specific "outcome-oriented" pattern of the emotional intelligence (EI) should be considered of capital importance for teenagers in order to promote mental health. Nevertheless it is rarely evaluated because a specific tool, useful for routinely use, is not available. In this paper the authors describe the effectiveness of a new approach of public health to improve the EI "outcome-oriented", by a specific index.

Design: A comparison of two samples: experimental (i.e. applying the program) vs control group, without randomization.

Setting: 12 classes belonging to 3 different schools.

Subjects: A sample of 276 students, 146 (53%) belonging to the experimental classes.

Intervention: A program of 20 meetings, once a week, based on the handbook Intervento psicoeducativo per la promozione del benessere psicologico e dell'intelligenza emotiva nelle scuole (Psycho-educational intervention for promoting psychological well-being and emotional intelligence at school) in order to stimulate a "peer to peer student approach".

Measures: Index of emotional intelligence (15 items), inventory idea questionnaire (19 items), learning ability questionnaire (6 items).

Analysis: Nonparametric tests were used.

Results: The authors found significant statistical differences at the conclusion of the study for all considered measures.

Conclusion: The results show a remarkable and positive impact of the approach above all on the "outcome-oriented" EI. Significant results were also observed about the indicator concerning irrational beliefs. The same significant results were found about learning abilities (goal definition, problem-solving and communication skills). The main limit is the study design (lack of randomization). Further evaluation is needed.