Impact
We measure our impact through external evaluations by research centres, with surveys of educators and families, and by using our website. External evaluation and figures show that the solution works and that the problem is urgent.
The Portuguese Psychologists Association prepared an assessment, which you can read here, and from which we publish an excerpt:
A creative and playful program, solidly based on scientific evidence and very easy to use
You can also read here the previous appreciation in Portuguese, with suggestions for improvement that we incorporated into the program.
The bottom line is that the program is accessible and effective in teaching emotion identification and emotion regulation strategies.
Through a partnership between The Feelings Detective and the Escola Superior de Saúde, the student developped a project with the following preliminary results:
"In order to fulfill the study plan of the Post-Graduate Course in Community Nursing at the School of Health of Santa Maria was developed an internship in the Group of Health Centers (ACeS) of Espinho/Gaia, at the Community Care Unit (UCC) of Arcozelo/Espinho. It started in February 2021 and will end on the 24th of September 2021.
The Health Planning methodology was used, which consists of the following steps: situation diagnosis, definition of priorities, setting objectives, selecting strategies, designing of programs and projects, preparation for execution, execution and evaluation.
The proposed theme was the approach to mental health and competences socioemotional factors in school-age children.
In the diagnosis of the situation, a survey of the needs was carried out on Health-Related Quality of Life in children. This one survey was carried out through the application of the questionnaire Kidscreen-52 to students who attend the 3rd and 4th years, at Escola Básica Thorn 3.
The type of study developed was descriptive, cross-sectional and with an approach quantitative analysis, where a sample of 128 children was selected, after the application of a non-random sampling technique to the target population.
In the second stage of Health Planning - determination of priorities - health needs were identified and subsequently prioritized through the grid analysis method.
Thus, after applying this method, the problems considered priorities for action were: Provocation and General Mood.
In this sense, and following the Health Planning methodology, it was a project entitled "teaching" was elaborated, with the objective of sensitize the target population to the importance of identifying and managing emotions. This project also aims to raise awareness of the target population to identify the various types of violence and identify existing support resources in the community.
I used the episodes of The Feelings Detective in Health Education about managing emotions, and the results obtained in this session were as follows:
- Rate of children able to identify two characteristics of emotions: 98.6%
- Rate of children able to distinguish at least three emotions: 99.3%
- Rate of children able to identify two strategies for managing emotions: 83.1%
- Do you consider the topic useful?: 95.1%
- Did you understand the contents covered?: 98.6%
- Would you like to have more sessions on this topic?: 86.6%"
The following results come from a questionnaire between 25th May and 10th June 2021 to 35 educators that had done the first 7 sessions or more. Of these, 14 answered (response rate: 40%) with answers for 299 children with 6.1 years of age on average (standard deviation: 1.9).
The main result is that the majority of educators strongly agree that Bulgy helped children in the following areas: emotional awareness, emotional well-being, problem-solving, self-confidence, self-awareness, emotional expression, empathy, courage, reduced conflict, reduced stress.
The questionnaire drew inspiration from the "Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire" and had these instructions.
Below are 10 statements about the possible impact of Bulgy on your classroom. For each, please mark whether you disagree, somewhat agree, or strongly agree. Please take into account the videos, podcast, activities, and conversations that arose because of Bulgy and the change in behaviour of children in general.
The following results come from a questionnaire between 7th and 10th March 2021 for the 76 families that done the first 9 sessions or more. Of these, 55 answered (72% response rate) with answers for 71 children with 6.6 years of age on average (standard deviation: 2.2).
The main result is that 89% of children change behaviour, especially they have are happier, have more courage, and become calmer.
The questionnaire had these instructions:
Below are 5 statements. For each of them, choose one of the following options:
- Not true
- Somewhat true
- Very true
It would help us a lot if you answer all statements to the best of your ability, even if you are not absolutely sure or if the statement sounds strange. Please answer based on Bulgy's impact (videos, podcast, activities, and conversations that it sparked) and the child's general behavior (independently of lockdown in the last few weeks).