Aprender a Convivir. A prevention program for improving social competence in three- to seven-year-olds.

Abstract Behavior problems are often observed in classrooms. The age at which problems ap-pear is increasingly younger, and there are no interventions that ensure a reduction in such behavior problems among school age children. Research and previous evidence show the im-portance of social competence in this kind of prevention. Working with preschool and prima-ry students must be the main objective, because social competence is a protective factor against behavior problems. In response to these social and educational problems, American and European countries have begun to include universal prevention programs in their curricu-lum, to ensure the learning of social competence at school. As an example, the pioneering program Aprender a Convivir [Learning to Live To-gether] can be considered a preventive intervention that encourages the innovative and opti-mal development of prosocial behavior in three- to seven year-old children. Its main contents are: rules, feelings and emotions, empathy, communication skills, interpersonal skills, asser-tiveness and problem solving skills. The framework focuses on increasing social competence and decreasing behavior problems, with the long term result of preventing antisocial behavior. The present contribution aims first to show the importance of working on social com-petence at school, and second, to present the