Improving adolescents’ subjective well-being, trait emotional intelligence and social anxiety through a programme based on the sport education model

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a physical-sport education pilot programme on adolescents’ subjective well-being (health-related quality of life, positive affect and negative affect), trait emotional intelligence and social anxiety. The programme was based on the pedagogical sport education model within a quality physical education framework, and approached from the perspective of social and emotional learning. Participants were 113 compulsory secondary education students aged 12-15 years that were assigned to a control group (n = 44) and an experimental group (n = 69). A quasi-experimental design with repeated pre-test and post-test measures was used. Bonferroni correction was applied for multiple comparisons. The preliminary results obtained in this investigation revealed that the physical-sport education pilot programme promoted significant improvements in a specific indicator of subjective well-being and trait emotional intelligence in the experimental group. These encouraging findings support the pedagogical efficiency of the programme with regard to the programme aim. The findings also highlight the feasibility and appropriateness of the programme in terms of an innovative teaching proposal.