The challenges of today’s society demand high levels of socio-emotional skills in children and adolescents; therefore, mental health is an important issue to be addressed and promoted in schools. The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a school mental health program (Promoting Mental Health at Schools; PROMEHS) designed to promote socio-emotional learning and prevent psychosocial difficulties in children and adolescents. The study was conducted on a sample of 1392 students (evaluated by 104 teachers) from kindergarten (n = 446), primary school (n = 426), secondary school (n = 354), and high school (n = 166). A quasi-experimental study design with experimental and waitlist control groups was used to evaluate the program’s effectiveness. Students were non-randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 895) and control group (n = 497). Students belonging to the experimental group received one-hour lessons once a week for 12 weeks. The teachers evaluated their students’ social-emotional skills, strengths, and difficulties before and after the intervention. The results indicated the effectiveness of the PROMEHS program in improving social-emotional skills for all school levels, reducing internalizing problems in primary and secondary school chil-dren, and reducing externalizing issues for kindergarten and primary school children. The PROMEHS program is a promising approach to enhancing childrens’ and adolescents’ social and emotional skills and to decreasing psychosocial difficulties, such as internalizing and externalizing problems.

A child’s ability to cope with stress is shaped by experiences in a parent–child relationship. In this study, the direct effect of a parent’s response to anger and happiness in childhood on adolescents’ and emerging adults’ psychological distress and the indirect effect through the mediating role of emotion regulation strategies—specifically, cognitive reappraisal and emotional suppression—were measured. To achieve our research aim, we tested four parallel mediation models using the bootstrapping method. A group of 497 participants aged between 14 and 35 years (M = 18.62; SD = 3.32), 66% female (n = 332) and 34% male (n = 165), completed a questionnaire comprising self-reporting measures. The results indicate direct effects between emotion socialization and distress for seven independent variables. The mother’s and father’s positive responses to anger and happiness are significant negative predictors of distress; the negative responses of both parents to happiness, and the mother’s negative response to anger—but not the father’s—are significant positive predictors of distress. The findings also provide support for the mediating role of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal for the mother’s positive response to both anger and happiness, as well as for the mother’s negative response to the child’s expression of happiness. None of the father’s responses—positive or negative, in relation to anger or happiness—are mediated by emotion regulation strategies in relation to distress. Our findings have practical implication for a preventative intervention program focused on the psychological growth of adolescents by adaptative emotional responses.

A child’s ability to cope with stress is shaped by experiences in the parent-child relationship. The direct effect of a parent’s response to anger and happiness in childhood on adolescents’ and emerging adults’ psychological distress, and the indirect effect through the mediating role of emotion regulation strategies, specifically cognitive reappraisal and emotional suppression, were measured. To achieve our research aim we tested four parallel mediation models, using the bootstrapping method. A group of 497 participants, aged between 14 and 35 years (M = 18.62;SD = 3.32), 66% female (n = 332) and 34% male (n = 165), completed a questionnaire comprised of self-reporting measures. The results indicate direct effects between emotion socialization and distress for seven independent variables. The mother’s and father’s positive responses to anger and happiness are significant negative predictors of distress, the negative responses of both parents to happiness, and the mother’s negative response to anger, but not the father’s, are significant positive predictors of distress. The findings also provide support for the mediating role of expressive suppression and cognitive reappraisal for the mother’s positive response to both, anger and happiness, as well as for the mother’s negative response to the child’s expression of happiness. None of father’s responses, positive or negative, in relation to anger or happiness, are mediated by emotion regulation strategies in relation to distress. The findings have some important theoretical and clinical implications for distressed adolescents and emerging adults.

Emotional Responses of the parent to the Angry and Happiness of An Autistic Child