Surfeel: teaching children to verbalise emotions

Last registered on January 19, 2024
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Surfeel: teaching children to verbalise emotions
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012855
Initial registration date
January 19, 2024

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 19, 2024, 2:24 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
Portugal
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Anna Person
Affiliation
University of Cologne
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Barbara Boelmann
PI Affiliation
University of Cologne
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Miguel Morin
PI Affiliation
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2024-01-29
End date
2024-07-26
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Welfare
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Emotions can be overwhelming and result in aggressive and uncooperative behaviour, especially when we have no appropriate strategy to deal with them. We evaluate a school-based programme, Surfeel, which teaches primary school children socio-emotional skills, enabling them to find appropriate strategies to cope with uncomfortable situations through verbalisation. We hypothesise that the implementation of the programme will result in a less aggressive learning environment which will improve children’s educational outcomes. To test this, we will first look at reported bullying incidents in treated classes. Secondly, we will investigate how children’s grades evolve over the course of the programme.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Boelmann, Barbara, Miguel Morin and Anna Person. 2024. "Surfeel: teaching children to verbalise emotions." AEA RCT Registry. January 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12855-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Intervention Start Date
2024-02-05
Intervention End Date
2024-06-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Educational outcomes (grades); bullying incidents and social worker interventions; learning environment measured by teachers' perception; emotional intelligence of subjects measured through parents' reports of children’s behaviours and direct evaluation of subjects through standardized test
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
We run an RCT to evaluate a school-based intervention in Lisbon, Portugal which teaches children socioemotional skills by enabling them to verbalise their feelings in a playful way, primarily through videos and songs.
We randomize treatment assignment at the class level, so that we will be able to compare children who did and did not receive the treatment within the same school and grade, to exclude any possible confounder given by school choice and age of participants.
The intervention is developed and distributed by Brokkolat. The programme is prepared to be used in schools directly and is divided into 18 separate sessions, consisting of 5-10 minutes of videos, 5-10 minutes of discussion and 30-40 minutes of arts/crafts activity. Teachers usually teach one or two sessions a week, making the intervention last between 9 and 18 weeks.
The programme is based mainly on Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (Beck, 1975) and on Transactional Analysis (Ian Stewart, 1987). It further draws from Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (Kabat-Zinn, 2005) and contemporary research on the impact of emotional awareness by Brackett (2019).

References:
BECK, A. (1975). Cognitive Therapy and the emotional disorders. Plume.
BRACKETT, M. (2019). Permission to feel: unlocking the power of emotions to help our kids, ourselves, and our society thrive. Celadon Books.
STEWART, I., JOINES, V.. (1987). TA Today: A New Introduction to Transactional Analysis.
KABAT-ZINN, J. (2005). Wherever you go, there you are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life. Hachette Books.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Class
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
300 classrooms in 13 schools
Sample size: planned number of observations
7,044
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
150 treated classes, 150 control classes
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Ethical Review Board of University of Cologne, Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences
IRB Approval Date
2023-12-19
IRB Approval Number
230072BB
Analysis Plan