Personal and Social Responsibility Programme Effects, Prosocial Behaviours, and Physical Activity Levels in Adolescents and Their Families

Abstract

The aim of this study was to analyse a personal and social responsibility programme in students and their family’s perceptions relative to responsibility, prosocial behaviours, empathy, violence perception and physical activity levels. A sample consisting of 57 physical education students between 11 and 14 years old (mean (M) = 11.93; standard deviation (SD) = 0.73) that included 32 of their parents (M = 49.31; SD = 6.39) was distributed into experimental and control groups. The main results indicate that there were initial significant differences in favour of the control group for personal and social responsibility compared to the experimental group and they disappeared at the end of the treatment. There was an increase in antisocial behaviours for the control group at the end of the treatment. The experimental group also enhanced the values in violence perception for both students and families as compared to the control group. These results seem contradictory, which may be due in part to a short-time intervention programme and a low number of participants in the sample. More studies will clarify the improvements this kind of programme can bring to the variables studied.