El juego en Educación Física como facilitador de inteligencia emocional, el autoconcepto y la asertividad del alumnado

Introduction: Adolescence is a key stage in the formation of personality due to the complexity of emotional development. Objective. The objective of the research was to analyse whether play in Physical Education, through eight sessions based on the Sports Education Model, promotes emotional intelligence, self-concept and assertiveness of students in Compulsory Secondary Education. Method. A quasi-experimental cross-sectional study was carried out with pre-test and post-test measurements, with the sample consisting of 116 students, distributed in 52 participants from the control group and 64 from the experimental group. Validated questionnaires were used to evaluate the selected variables. Results. The results showed statistically significant decreases in the variables of adaptability and emotional self-concept at the intragroup level, with no variations at the intergroup level with respect to the experimental group and control group. Discussion. Considering the fact that adaptability is related to physical activity (Layne et al., 2022; Vaquero-Solís et al., 2018) it is possible that students were more focused on fulfilling their role than on motor experience. Regarding emotional self-concept, Martín-Gutiérrez et al. (2014) point out that novice teachers tend to experience positive and negative emotions associated with the teacher, and may experience few feelings of achievement because they do not feel competent with the leadership exercised. Conclusion. The intervention applied is not sufficient to develop the variables treated without prior training in leadership, social skills and emotional regulation. It is recommended to increase the number of sessions, evaluate mid-process, and include structured social-emotional interventions.