ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Digital Learning Innovations
Volume 10 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2025.1613256
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of Teacher Emotion in EducationView all articles
Emotional Validation and Affective Bonding in Early Childhood Education: Design and Pilot of a Training Program in Spain and Costa Rica
Provisionally accepted
- University of Granada, Granada, Spain
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Emotional development in childhood is an aspect of undeniable importance, considering that this is a key stage for the acquisition of the emotional and social skills required for life in society. This study analyzes the effects of implementing a teacher training program for children's emotional development based on the establishment of emotional bonds and the validation of emotions in early childhood education. The strengthening of children's emotional development-focused on the establishment of emotional bonds and the validation of emotions-increases the number of interactions linked to these processes, especially those of emotional validation. The objective of this research was to analyze the effectiveness of a program developed to strengthen children's emotional developmentfocused on the establishment of emotional bonds and the validation of emotions. A quasiexperimental pretest-posttest design was used, focusing on comparing pre-and postintervention results between an experimental and a control group in two international contexts (Spain and Costa Rica). The evaluation of the training program's effect, carried out in both groups, included a pretest and posttest of the abbreviated and translated into Spanish scale of the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS), as well as a record of the frequency of emotional validation actions during three days of classroom work. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistical tests and various types of analysis to analyze the intervention effects using Mixed Effects Models. The pretest and posttest analyses showed a significant improvement in some of the aspects of affective bonding measured with the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) and an increase in emotional validation actions present in teacher-child interactions. These findings suggest that a teacher training program focused on emotional validation and strengthening affective bonds can lead to greater closeness between teachers and children, as well as a reduction in classroom conflicts.
Keywords: teacher training, affective bond, emotional validation, early childhood education, Preschool education
Received: 16 Apr 2025; Accepted: 06 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Vargas Pana, Gijón Puerta and Lizarte. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Carolina Vargas Pana, University of Granada, Granada, 18071, Spain
José Gijón Puerta, University of Granada, Granada, 18071, Spain
Emilio Jesús Lizarte, University of Granada, Granada, 18071, Spain
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.