Educational & Counselling Psychology, and Special Education professor Kimberly Schonert-Reichl presented a portion of her current research projects to fellow colleagues within the large department in the Faculty of Education, at the University of British Columbia.

1. 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

2. Overview
 Introduction
 Declining empathy in youth?
 Recent findings
 Lingering questions
 Directions for future research

3. 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

4. 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

5. University-
Community
Collaborations:
Translational
Research

6. University-Community Collaborations:
Partnerships

7. “Educating the mind without educating the heart
is no education at all.”
- Aristotle

8. 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.

9. Can Prosocialty Be
Taught?

11. A Baby and a Snugglie…

12. 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)

13. Why
Now?

14. Adolescents Today are
Less Empathic and
More Self-Absorbed
Decreasesin empathy in 14,000
college students between 1979 and 2009,
especially since 2000
(Konrath et al., 2011)

17. Why?

18. What
Now?

19. Deficits to
Developmental
Potential

20. Promoting Resiliency

21. INTERVENTION PREVENTION

22. Social & Emotional Learning
(SEL): A Growing Movement

23. Prosocial Behaviours are
Malleable

24. An interdisciplinary
approach to
examining prosociality
in childhood and
adolescence

25. An evolutionary
perspective

27. Environmental
Mismatches
 “Environmental mismatches can
dysregulate adolescent development
and behavior: The case of age
segregation” (p. 612).

29. Lesson
Themes
 Meeting the Baby
 Crying
 Caring and Planning for
the Baby
 Emotions
 Sleep
 Safety
 Communication
 Who am I?
 Goodbye and Good
Wishes

30. Integrating ROE into the Curriculum:
Literacy Activities

31. What does the research
say about the effectiveness
of the Roots of Empathy?

32. Changes in Peer Assessments
of Prosocialness
Schonert-Reichl, Smith, Zaidman-Zait, & Hertzman, 2012, School Mental Health

33. 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)?

34. 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 . . .”

35. A Neuroscience
Perspective:
Mindfulness
Interventions

36. Social and Emotional Learning &
Mindfulness

38. MINDUP and Scholastic

39. The Core Practice – 3 times a day
“the heart of the program”
•Pause
•Listen
•Breathe
39

40. The Gratitude Practice

41. 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

42. MINDUP RCT

43. Executive Functions

44. Child Self-Reports
Change Scores
ES=.42
ES=.40
ES=.48
ES=.59
ES=.50
ES=-.45
ES=.55

45. Change Scores
Peer Behavioral Assessments
ES=.44
ES=.76
ES=.72
ES=.87
ES=.36
ES=.42
ES=.55
ES=-.71

46. 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. 48

49. A Positive Psychology
Perspective

51. 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

52. 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?

53. 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

54. 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

55. A Biological/Health
Psychology Perspective

56. Can random assignment to
volunteering reduce cardiovascular
risk in teens?

58. Volunteering Reduces CV Risk
(Schreier, Schonert-Reichl, & Chen, 2013, JAMA – Pediatrics)

59. It’s Good to be Good

60. “It’s not survival of the fittest; it’s
survival of the kindest.”
Dacher Kelner

61. 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.

62. Helping Toddler
Video’s
 http://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/study
-videos.php

63. 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?

64. How can we disrupt
the downward
trajectory?

65. Directions for Future
Research
 Interdisciplinary research –
 Social Psychology (e.g., examine
peer hiearchies)
 Biological approaches
 More attention to examining the
barriers

66. + 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?

68. Some recent
publications

69. The PAUSE
Puppets
Books
The “Taxi Dog Educational Program” &
The Ingredients: The Primer Lessons

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

71. SCHOOLS
K-12 Lesson Plans, Educator Guide
Online Professional Learning Course
Kindness Resources
HOMES
Home Extension Activities,
Family Resource Page
COMMUNITIES
RAKtivists, Kindness Clubs

72. 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