Body Shadow Theatre In Physical Education To Promote The Emotional Wellbeing Of Schoolchildren: A Gender Perspective

Abstract

The present study was based on the possibilities offered by
body shadow theatre as a resource and content to promote
the emotional well-being of girls and boys from an early
age. A total of 118 primary school students (60 boys and
58 girls) from a school in south-eastern Spain participated.
They assessed the emotional intensity they experienced
through the Games and Emotions Scale for Children (GES-C) instrument and explained which emotion they had felt more intensely and why, through drawings and/or comments. The data obtained were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 27.0 for Windows and an inductive categorization using NVivo software. The results showed that the expressive motor situations presented through body shadow theatre favored the intense experience of positive emotions (M = 5.02, SD = 1.40) significantly (p = .000) in relation to negative emotions (M = 1.17, SD = 0.47). Boys and girls justified emotional well-being with personal and body shadow theatre aspects. Girls, unlike boys, emphasized social relationships during expressive motor practice. The conclusions showed that the free and creative expressive motor situations presented in body shadow theatre favored emotional well-being in both girls and boys.