Since 2000, the research group on Lifestyle and Human Development (Know in Spanish as Grupo de Investigación Estilo de Vida y Desarrollo Humano-GIEVyDH) of the Universidad Nacional de Colombia has been working on the design and implementation of the “Social Competence and School Health” (Know in Spanish as "Competencia Social y Salud Escolar"-CSSE). This program has characterized by an integral conceptualization of health, emphasizing mental health and quality of life of children and teenage students. From this view, the group built a methodological and pedagogic model to educate social competence, within the framework of a motivational perspective that provides to the program with a particular instrumental character. This approach describes the interaction between social competence and school health from the starting point of its symmetric location with the care of life, the search for subjective wellbeing, and the search for human development.
This year, the leaders of this experience, Luis Flórez-Alarcón and Helena Vélez-Botero, release a book called “Social Competence and School Health: A working model based on the motivational human process” (ISBN 978-958-8993-66-9). This book provides the conceptual framework of the CSSE program, the methodological approach given by the Psychological Dimension of Health Promotion and Prevention model, and presents the program structure. Besides, to strengthen the work on school health the group is doing two research process: i) to prove a selective and indicated prevention interventions of suicide behaviour on youth people, and ii) to validate an instrument which evaluates the parental competence to provide a useful measurement tool for Colombia.
Ask for more information mailing to Helena Vélez Botero (email: hjvelezb@unal.edu.co)