Emotions play a fundamental role since childhood, and they constitute a necessary condition for a good integral development. Emotional awareness evolves throughout childhood development through adolescence, when emotional self-regulation skills emerge. The adolescent already has the emotional capacities of an adult, but not the experience, so it is easy to observe certain emotional disorder at this age. The development of social and communication skills allows the child/adolescent to interact with their immediate environment to establish appropriate social relationships. This symposium addresses several papers that investigate the socio-emotional development of Spanish children and adolescents in relation to other psychological variables. In particular, the first paper analyzes the importance of emotions in adolescence and its relation to academic performance, somatic symptoms, and the request for psychological services. The second paper explores feelings and emotions before the erotic-sexual in adolescents. The third paper evaluates the psychological well-being and the emotional competences in adolescents. The last one focuses on empathy and its relation to attachment to equals.

Remedios González Barrón is Professor at the Department of Personality, Evaluation and Psychological Treatments of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Valencia, Spain. Her teaching is focused on clinical psychology of children and adolescents. In the last decades she has held different positions such as Associate Dean of Practices, Coordinator of the Degree in Logopedia, the President of the Ibero-American Association for Diagnosis and Psychological Evaluation, and she also has been the editor-in-chief of their journal. She has also been part of different commissions at the University. She has investigated different areas of childhood and adolescence (emotions, prosocial behavior, school life, hospitalization, intervention programs, etc.), but also with adult population (gender violence, postpartum depression, cognitive impairment, sensorial analysis, etc). The objectives have been focused on determining the risk profiles in the studied areas. Her research has been funded by agencies through public calls. She has also collaborated with other national (University of the Basque Country, Autonomous University of Barcelona, UNED, etc.) and international institutions (University of Buenos Aires, University of Mexico, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima), University of Bologna, University of Leiven, University of Berlin, etc.). She has presented her research in national and international congresses. She has published in prestigious journals. She also is the author of teaching and outreach books, and book chapters. Because her extensive experience and dedication she has widely been recognized for her teaching and research at the University of Valencia.