Friendship and Socio-Emotional Skills in 3rd/4th Year Students in Portuguese Basic Education

We carried out quantitative research (descriptive, exploratory, transversal, explanatory) analyzing interpersonal/social friendship relationships (acceptance/refusal) and the mastery of socio-emotional skills in four classes with 3rd and 4th year students of basic education (sample N=91 students), in a School Group in Castelo Branco, Portugal, in the Pre-COVID period (November 2019), not being able to carry out the intervention of an Emotional Intelligence Development Program in these study subjects. We investigated the significant differences between the social friendship relationships (sociometric friendship test) of students in the 3rd/4th year of basic education and the analysis of the results obtained by the Emotional Skills Questionnaire. The study was guided by the following objectives: analyzing the acceptance/rejection of the relationship of 3rd/4th year students from the four basic education classes; verifying the significant differences in friendship relationships between 3rd/4th year students by gender; knowing the differences between 3rd/4th year students by class in emotional skills; and determining the socio-emotional skills by gender of 3rd/4th year students by class. The results obtained confirmed that certain student behaviors in the group/class constitute an indicator of effective and valued social skills in this socialization context.