Efectividad de un programa de educación emocional y habilidades interpersonales sobre la capacidad de resiliencia en adolescentes con trastorno mental

Abstract

Mental disorders in adolescence implies an alteration in the normal evolution of this stage and a stressful or adverse event to face. This situation may lead adolescents to present low resilience, adapting ineffectively to adversity. Measures to maintain and promote resilience are used in order to achieve the most normal development possible for the adolescent into adult life, despite the disorder itself. Objective: To determine the effects on the resilience of an emotional education program and interpersonal skills in adolescents diagnosed with mental disorder. Method: a quasi-experimental pre-test post-test of repeated measures in a sample of 23 adolescents between 12 and 14 years old, who have diagnosed a mental disorder and receive care in a Mental Health Unit. They participated in a group activity of emotional education and interpersonal skills composed by 8 sessions. Information was collected on social, family and clinical variables, the Saavedra School Resilience Scale, the Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS-24) was used as a measure of emotional capacities, Stress Management Subscale (Spanish adaptation) as a tool for assessing frustration tolerance, the Personal Well Being Index (PWI) version 7 items for subjective well-being and the classification of nursing outcomes (NOC) and their outcome criteria. Results: The intervention had a significant positive effect on total resilience (p <0.004), emotional attention (p <0.001), emotional repair (p <0.001), frustration tolerance (p <0.008), subjective well-being (p <0.021) and results collected in the different outcome criteria of the NOC Emotional Balance (1204) and Personal Resilience (1309). On the other hand, it was not effective for resilience dimensions related to external resources, nor were differences found by sex, family or clinical characteristics. Conclusions: there is a significant and positive relationship between the performance of a group intervention of "emotional education and interpersonal skills" and the improvement of the level and resilience capacity previously affected by the consequences of the mental disorder in adolescents. Similarly, the implementation of this intervention produces improvements in emotional abilities, including tolerance to frustration and ultimately subjective psychological well-being when previously they are diminished below the average of the general population.