Promoting Empathy, Kindness, and

Altruism in Childhood and

Adolescence: Emerging Research, Lingering

Questions, and Directions for Future Research

Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl, Ph.D. ECPS Department Meeting

University of British Columbia

February 18, 2015

Overview

Introduction

Declining empathy in youth?

Recent findings

Lingering questions

Directions for future research

Thanks to . . . Graduate Students

Eva Oberle

Molly Stewart Lawlor

Jenna Whitehead

Jenny Kitil

Jacquie Maloney

Lina Sweiss

Michelle Sipl

Essie Sutton

Kim Thomson

Zuhra Teja

James Floman

Hannah Schreier

Nicole Catherine

Jen Hanson, . . And many more!

Faculty Collaborators

Shelley Hymel

Barbara Weber

Bruno Zumbo

Clyde Hertzman

Amery Wu

Edith Chen

Sonja Lyubomirsky

Martin Guhn

Anne Gadermann

Tim Oberlander

Adele Diamond

David Abbott

Robert Roeser

Recent Research

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)

Programs

•Roots of Empathy

•MindUP

•SMART-in-Education for teachers

•Adolescent Volunteering

•Kindness Intervention

•Taxi Dog Program

•Random Acts of Kindness Curriculum

Resiliency and Well-being in Children and

Adolescents

•The Middle Years Development Instrument – a population level measure of child well-being and assets

•Supportive adults in schools and communities

Teacher Education

•A scan of SEL in teacher preparation programs in the US and Canada

University-

Community

Collaborations:

Translational

Research

University-Community Collaborations:

Partnerships

“Educating the mind without educating the heart

is no education at all.” - Aristotle

Prosocialness*

Cooperativeness,

helpfulness, sharing, and

being empathic

*Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., Pastorelli, C., Bandura, A, & Zimbardo, P. G.

(2000). Prosocial foundations of children’s academic achievement. Psychological

Science, 11, 302–306.

Can Prosocialty Be

Taught?

A Baby and a Snugglie…

The story of “Darren” Darren was the oldest child I ever saw in a Roots of Empathy class. He was in Grade 8

and had been held back twice. He was two years older than everyone else and already

starting to grow a beard. I knew his story: his mother had been murdered in front of his

eyes when he was four years old, and he had lived in a succession of foster homes ever

since. Darren looked menacing because he wanted us to know he was tough: his head

was shaved except for a ponytail at the top and he had a tattoo on the back of his head.

The instructor of the Roots of Empathy program was explaining to the class about

differences in temperament that day. She invited the young mother who was visiting the

class with Evan, her six-month-old baby, to share her thoughts about her baby’s

temperament. Joining in the discussion, the mother told the class how Evan liked to

face outwards when he was in the Snugli and didn’t want to cuddle into her, and how

she would have preferred to have a more cuddly baby. As the class ended, the mother

asked if anyone wanted to try on the Snugli, which was green trimmed with pink

brocade. To everyone’s surprise, Darren offered to try it, and as the other students

scrambled to get ready for lunch, he strapped it on. Then he asked if he could put Evan

in. The mother was a little apprehensive, but she handed him the baby, and he put Evan

in, facing towards his chest. That wise little baby snuggled right in, and Darren took him

into a quiet corner and rocked back and forth with the baby in his arms for several

minutes. Finally, he came back to where the mother and the Roots of Empathy instructor

were waiting and he asked: “If nobody has ever loved you, do you think you could still be

a good father?” (Gordon, 2005, p. 5-6)

Why

Now?

Adolescents Today are

Less Empathic and

More Self-Absorbed Decreases in empathy in 14,000

college students between 1979 and 2009,

especially since 2000 (Konrath et al., 2011)

Why?

What

Now?

Deficits to Developmental

Potential

Promoting Resiliency

INTERVENTION PREVENTION

Social & Emotional Learning (SEL): A Growing Movement

Prosocial Behaviours are

Malleable

An interdisciplinary

approach to

examining prosociality

in childhood and

adolescence

An evolutionary perspective

Environmental

Mismatches

“Environmental mismatches can

dysregulate adolescent development

and behavior: The case of age

segregation” (p. 612).

Lesson

Themes

Meeting the Baby

Crying

Caring and Planning for

the Baby

Emotions

Sleep

Safety

Communication

Who am I?

Goodbye and Good

Wishes

Integrating ROE into the Curriculum:

Literacy Activities

What does the research

say about the effectiveness

of the Roots of Empathy?

Changes in Peer Assessments

of Prosocialness

Schonert-Reichl, Smith, Zaidman-Zait, & Hertzman, 2012, School Mental Health

What are the mechanisms/processes

that can account for positive changes

from ROE? Social psychological theories of group

formation? (e.g., Festinger et al., Tajfel,

Staub)

Developmental psychology --

development of emotions? (Eisenberg,

Saarni, Denham)

Psychobiology/neuroscience (e.g.,

oxytocin)?

Notes on Cultures of Violence, Cultures of Caring

and Peace, and the Fulfillment of Basic Human

Needs (Staub, E., 2003)

“To create a nonviolent, caring world, to

create goodness, it is essential to extend

the boundaries of ‘us.’ Inclusive caring -

the extension of caring to the ‘other,’

ideally to all human beings - develops

through words and images that humanize

all people . . .”

A Neuroscience Perspective: Mindfulness Interventions

Social and Emotional Learning & Mindfulness

MINDUP and Scholastic

The Core Practice – 3 times a day “the heart of the program”

•Pause •Listen •Breathe

39

The Gratitude Practice

Intervention Activities

• 3 x daily mindful breathing.

• Sustained attention on present moment experiences.

• Practicing perspective-taking, optimism, gratitude, savoring happy experiences.

• Collectively engaging in acts of kindness to classmates and others in the community.

• Shared experiences with classmates and teacher.

Proximal Processes

• Improved mindful awareness of body and mind– thoughts, emotions, behaviors, sensations.

• Improved self-regulation skills, including attention regulation, and inhibitory control.

• Improved Empathy, Perspective-taking

Outcomes

• Improved prosociality

• Increased well-being

• Improved stress physiology

• Improved school success

MindUP Logic Model

MINDUP RCT

Executive Functions

Child Self-Reports Change Scores

ES=.42 ES=.40

ES=.48

ES=.59

ES=.50

ES=-.45

ES=.55

Change Scores

Peer Behavioral Assessments

ES=.44 ES=.76

ES=.72

ES=.87

ES=.36

ES=.42 ES=.55

ES=-.71

The Prosocial Classroom:

A Model of Teacher Social and Emotional Competence and Classroom and Child Outcomes

Healthy

Teacher/Student

Relationships

Healthy

Classroom

Climate

Effective SEL

implementation

Teachers’ Social &

Emotional Skills &

Well Being

Student

Social, emotional &

academic

outcomes

Effective

classroom

management

skills

School/Community Context Factors

Jennings & Greenberg, 2009

48

A Positive Psychology Perspective

Positive Activities

• Writing letters of gratitude1, 2, 3

• Counting your blessings4, 5

• Performing acts of kindness4, 6

• Imagining your best possible self2, 3, 7

• Recalling an intensely positive experience8

• Using your strengths in a new way1 1 Seligman, Steen, Park, & Peterson, 2005; 2 Boehm, Lyubomirsky, & Sheldon, 2011; 3 Lyubomirsky, Dickerhoof, Boehm, & Sheldon, 2011; 4 Lyubomirsky, Sheldon, & Schkade, 2005; 5 Emmons & McCullough, 2003; 6 Sheldon, Boehm, & Lyubomirsky, 2011; 7 Layous, Nelson, & Lyubomirsky, 2011, 8 King, 2001

Research Questions

• Does children’s well-being increase in response to positive activities?

• How might engaging in positive activities change how children perceive one another?

Method

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Week 1 Assent & Baseline Measures

Week 2 Activity Instructions

Complete Activity

Activity Report

Week 3 Activity Instructions

Complete Activity

Activity Report

Week 4 Activity Instructions

Complete Activity

Activity Report

Week 5 Activity Instructions

Complete Activity

Activity Report

Week 6 Follow-up Measures

Examples of Responses ACT OF KINDNESS • Gave a friend a nice snack • Hugged Vanessa • I listened to people who

have trouble • Moving a piano • I gave a snack away

without anyone knowing • Holding the door open • Cleaning toilets

WHEREABOUTS • Grandpa’s • Library • 20th & Dunbar • Swings • My friend’s apartment • Fraser River • Classroom • Bus • My house’s garden • Children’s festival

A Biological/Health Psychology Perspective

Can random assignment to volunteering reduce cardiovascular risk in teens?

Volunteering Reduces CV Risk

(Schreier, Schonert-Reichl, & Chen, 2013, JAMA – Pediatrics)

It’s Good to be Good

“It’s not survival of the fittest; it’s

survival of the kindest.”

Dacher Kelner

Lingering Questions

The evolutionary basis of altruism.

Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. (2006). Altruistic helping in

human infants and young chimpanzees. Science, 311,

1301–1303.

Warneken, F. & Tomasello, M. (2009). The roots of human

altruism. British Journal of Psychology. Target article with

commentaries, 100, 445-471.

Warneken, F., & Tomasello, M. (2008). Extrinsic rewards

undermine altruistic tendencies in 20-month-olds.

Developmental Psychology, 44, 1785–1788.

Helping Toddler

Video’s

http://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/study

-videos.php

Lingering Questions Why is there a decline in prosocialness

in the control groups?

What happens in school contexts that

might deter the promotion of

prosocialness?

What role do teachers’ play? Teacher

well-being? Pre-service teacher

education?

How can we disrupt

the downward

trajectory?

Directions for Future

Research Interdisciplinary research –

Social Psychology (e.g., examine

peer hiearchies)

Biological approaches

More attention to examining the

barriers

+ Social Hierarchies, Stress

Reactivity and Health

Primate species form stable, linearly transitive social

hierarchies

Subordinate positions associated with upregulated

adrenocortical function. impaired immune

competence, and decreased resistance to disease

Children as young as two years of age form social

orders within weeks of entering new social groups

Are subordinate positions in early peer hierarchies

associated with greater stress, exaggerated

reactivity, and excessive, stress-related morbidity?

Some recent

publications

The PAUSE Puppets

Books

The “Taxi Dog Educational Program” &

The Ingredients: The Primer Lessons

KINDNESS

IN THE CLASSROOM Free K-12 instructional materials teach prosocial skills

SCHOOLS

K-12 Lesson Plans, Educator Guide Online Professional Learning Course

Kindness Resources HOMES

Home Extension Activities, Family Resource Page

COMMUNITIES

RAKtivists, Kindness Clubs

Presentation Design: Jeremy Alexander - HELP

Photo Credits:

Boy pointing by ruurmo; Boy with pug by Renata Alves dos Anjos;

Boy and basketball by Alex E Proimos; Girl looking to horizon by

Roby Ferrari; Sad girl by apdk; Girl picking beans by various

brennemans; All you need is love by Carf;

Thank You