Strengthening social-emotional skills in female individuals: Implementation and evaluation of an intervention program

This research aims to examine the effectiveness of an eight-week intervention program designed to develop social-emotional skills in adolescents. The study used a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test–post-test control group. The study group consisted of 24 female students (experimental=12, control=12) aged 14–16. The Social-Emotional Skills Psychoeducation Program, prepared by the Ministry of National Education, was administered to the experimental group, while no specific intervention was provided to the control group. The EPOCH Well-Being Scale, adapted for adolescents, was used as the data collection tool. The data were analyzed using independent-samples t-tests, paired-samples t-tests, and a mixed-design ANOVA in SPSS 27. The findings indicated a significant increase in the experimental group from pre-test to post-test, whereas no significant change was observed in the control group. Consequently, the social-emotional skills program was found to be effective in increasing adolescents' well-being. The findings are consistent with research on social-emotional learning, revealing improvements particularly in self-awareness, empathy, and relationship skills. However, the limited sample size and the inclusion of only female participants restrict the generalizability of the results. Future research is recommended to examine long-term effects with larger, more heterogeneous samples.