Assessing psychosocial skills and negative emotional states of elementary school students in Yogyakarta Area

Students in Yogyakarta area require skills to meet the psychological and social challenges of high-risk natural disaster and daily life. Therefore, it requires study to explore the various students’ psychosocial skills based on teachers’ perspective and negative emotional states. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis were used to examine the data. The study conducted semi-structured interviews on nine physical education teachers from elementary schools in Yogyakarta. Three teachers were from the schools located in Disaster Area of volcano, two teachers were from schools in Urban Area, and four teachers were from schools located in Suburban Area. A Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) 42 survey was also used to explore the negative emotional state of the 745 elementary school students from fourth to sixth grades in three different areas. The Physical Education (PE) teacher perceived that students’ essential psychosocial skills are sufficient, but they still require skills in the following areas: stress coping, communication, social awareness, and problem solving. The children who lived in the disaster area had a lower negative emotional state than those who lived in the urban and suburban areas. The future program should involve variety of activities to decrease students’ negative emotional state and develop their psychosocial skills harmoniously.