Adopting the Emotions Course in the Italian context: A pilot study to test effects on social-emotional competence in preschool children.

The purpose of this study was to adopt the Emotions Course (EC) in the Italian context and to examine preliminarily its effectiveness in accelerating the social-emotional competence and reducing maladaptive behaviors in preschool children. The study involved 143 children (73 males and 70 females) aged 3–5 years (M = 4.4 years, SD = .74), divided into two groups: 1) an experimental group (N = 69; 34 males and 35 females), consisting of classes in which teachers realized the EC, integrating it in their usual educational plan; 2) a control group (N = 74; 39 males and 35 females), consisting of classes in which teachers exclusively followed their usual educational plan that did not include the …