Emotional Education Facing Negative Student Behavior in Traditional Discipline Contexts. A Literature Review

Abstract

This study presents a systematic literature review examining the relationship between emotional education and negative student behavior in traditional discipline contexts. Twenty scientific articles published between 2020 and 2025 were selected from Scielo, Redalyc, Google Scholar, and Dialnet databases, following the PRISMA protocol for identification, screening, and eligibility assessment. The initial search yielded 87 records, of which twenty were included after applying predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Selected studies were organized around three research questions addressing the relationship between emotional education and negative behaviors, intervention strategies with documented effectiveness, and contextual factors mediating this relationship. Findings indicate that deficits in emotional competencies are consistently associated with higher frequency and intensity of disruptive behaviors, a relationship that holds across different educational levels. The most effective strategies identified, including cooperative learning, role-playing, and self-regulation pathways, share a common feature: they shift behavioral control from external norms toward the student's own self-regulatory capacity. Furthermore, the teacher's emotional competence, family involvement, and the institutional disciplinary model emerge as structural mediators of this relationship. The review concludes that traditional discipline contexts actively generate negative affective states, such as fear and shame, that limit the effectiveness of emotional interventions, making the transformation of the disciplinary model a necessary condition for achieving sustained behavioral change.