Emotional life skills and active lifestyle in university students: a 12‑week multicomponent quasi‑experimental protocol
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v80.118761Keywords:
Emotional intelligence, exercise, lifestyle, students, universityAbstract
Introduction: University students face increasing psychological, academic, and lifestyle-related demands, underscoring the need for structured interventions addressing emotional competencies and health-related behaviors in higher education. Previous programs have often targeted isolated components and lacked sufficient methodological detail for replication.
Objective: To describe the design and methodological development of a 12-week multicomponent intervention protocol targeting emotional life skills and lifestyle-related behaviors in university students.
Methods: This protocol outlines a quasi-experimental, longitudinal pre–post study with a non-randomized experimental group and a passive control group. Approximately 100 undergraduate students enrolled in health- and movement-related programs will be recruited through convenience sampling. The intervention combines weekly psychological life-skills sessions, monthly psycho-nutritional workshops, and weekly structured physical exercise sessions. Emotional life skills will be assessed using validated measures of emotional regulation and emotional metacognition, while lifestyle-related behaviors will be evaluated through dietary adherence and physical activity habits. Functional physical performance will be measured using standardized strength, power, and sprint tests. Group allocation, assessment procedures, intervention fidelity, and follow-up conditions are predefined to ensure transparency and replicability. Data will be analyzed using repeated-measures general linear models to examine time × group effects.
Conclusions: This protocol provides a detailed and replicable framework for evaluating a multicomponent intervention aimed at improving emotional and lifestyle-related competencies in university students, serving as a basis for future empirical evaluation rather than evidence of effectiveness.
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