Promoting Childrens Social and Emotional Development

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• Promoting Childrens Social and Emotional
  Development
• Effectiveness of a Social Emotional Competence
  Promotion Program Among Children in Elementary
  School A Randomized Controlled Trial
• Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl
• University of British Columbia
• 19th IUHPE World Conference
• Pre-conference Symposium, June 10, 2007
• Vancouver, BC, Canada

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With Thanks To . . .

• Funders
• UBC Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP),
• BC Ministry of Education,
• UBC Hampton Research Fund,
• United Way,
• BC Medical Services Foundation (Vancouver
  Foundation)
• And to . . .
• Mary Gordon and the members of the Roots of
  Empathy Board

• Co-investigators
• Clyde Hertzman
• Veronica Smith
• Anat Zaidman-Zait
• Community Collaborators
• Vancouver School Board (Alva Jensen, Larry
  Haberlin Jacqui Farquar)
• Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (Lois Yelland)
• Research Assistants
• Angela Jaramillo, Denise Buote, Kristen Foulkes,
  Shayna Rusticus, Celina Vergel de Dios, Lynda
  Hutchinson, Zoe Paris, Matt Haberlin, Molly
  Stewart Lawlor, Janette McIntosh

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Focus of the Discussion
What is the Roots of Empathy Program?

• Background
• The importance of promoting childrens social and
  emotional competence.
• The need for evidence-based practice.

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The Research Evidence

• Making the Case for Promoting Childrens Social
  and Emotional Competence

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Key Research Findings

• There is an inextricable link between childrens
  social and emotional competence and their school
  and life success.
• There is a growing research literature
  demonstrating that social and emotional
  competence can be fostered in childhood and
  adolescence.
• There is a need for evidence-based programs that
  can foster childrens social and emotional
  understanding and development.

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Recent Research . . .

• Social emotional literacy reduces violence and
  promotes prosocial behaviors (Schonert-Reichl et
  al., 2005 Weissberg Greenberg, 1998).
• Prosocial behaviors exhibited by students in the
  classroom were better predictors of academic
  achievement than were standardized test scores
  (Wentzel, 1993).
• Academic achievement in Grade 8 could be better
  predicted from knowing childrens grade 3 social
  emotional competence than from knowing childrens
  grade 3 academic achievement (Caprara,
  Barbanelli, Pastorelli, Bandura, Zimbardo,
  2000).

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• . . . emotional literacy is as vital as any
  other skill, and is particularly central to
  childrens ability to interact and form
  relationships.
• Susanne Denham
• Social and Emotional Prevention and Intervention
  Programming for Preschoolers, 2003

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Social Emotional Learning and Academic Success

• Promoting students SR and social emotional
  competence leads to higher academics
• Weissberg et al. (2007) conducted the largest
  ever meta-analysis of 270 research studies on
  social emotional learning. Findings revealed
  that
• Students enrolled in an SEL program ranked at
  least 15 percentile points higher on achievement
  tests than students who did not participate.

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How Can Social and Emotional Competence be
Promoted in Schools?
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Theoretical Model
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• The developmental mechanism that is used most
  frequently to explain age-related increases in
  altruistic behavior is the increasing ability of
  the child to take the point of view of the other
  person (Underwood Moore, 1982 p. 144).

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The Need for Research Examining Efficacy of
Prevention Programs

• There is a growing awareness of the importance of
  evidence-based practices in schools.
• Limited research exists that has examined the
  effectiveness of school-based programs (CASEL,
  2002).
• Of those evaluations that exist, many have been
  limited in scope and fraught with methodological
  shortcomings (Durlak Wells, 1997).
• Not informed by developmental theory.
• Absence of experimental design (e.g., control
  group).
• Utilize outcome measures of questionable
  reliability and validity.
• Few focus on promoting emotional competence.

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The B.C. Context

• Human and Social Development is one of the goals
  of the British Columbia (BC) school system.
• Social Responsibility has been identified by the
  BC Ministry of Education as one of the four
  Performance Standards (Reading, Writing,
  Numeracy).
• Increased focus on early intervention and
  prevention
• Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP)
• Consortium for Health, Intervention, Learning,
  and Development (CHILD)

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UBC VSB Partnership
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Can an Infant be a Catalyst for Change? The
Roots of Empathy Program
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What is the Roots of Empathy?

• A universal primary preventive classroom-based
  social emotional competence promotion program
  created by Mary Gordon.
• Cornerstone of the program is a class visit by an
  infant, his/her caregiver(s), and an instructor
  over 9 months.
• In lessons children learn about the babys growth
  and development via interactions and observations
  with the baby.
• The curriculum fosters empathy and
  emotional/social understanding through various
  forms of story telling, discussion, and
  child-centered activities.

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The Roots of Empathy Program Canada and Beyond

• Piloted in Toronto in 2 classrooms in 1996.
• This school year, 51,552 children in 2,062
  classrooms across 9 provinces in Canada are
  receiving the program.
• By June 2007, 158,775 children in total will have
  received the program.
• Piloted in Japan, Australia, New Zealand.

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ROE Theoretical Framework

• View of empathy as multidimensional (Feshbach,
  1979)
• Cognitive perspective-taking
• Affective emotion
• Social Relational (Hammond et al.,2007)
• Ecological Focus
• A focus on changing the ecology of the classroom
  environment to one in which belonging, caring,
  collaboration, and understanding others is
  emphasized (Cohen, 2001 Goodenow, 1993
  Noddings, 1992).

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Fostering a prosocial value orientation thru
engaging children collectively in activities that
benefit others (Staub, 1988).
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Emotional Literacy
Observation of and labelling babys emotions
Reflecting and identifying own emotions
Understanding the emotions of others (empathy)
Comfort in discussing emotions
Try not to get mad at a baby because he might
learn to be mean when he grows up.
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Research studies to date

• 2000-2001Primary Grade Evaluation (N 132)
• 2001-2002 National Evaluation (N 585)
• 2002-2003 Rural/Urban Evaluation (N 419)
• 2003-2004 Randomized Controlled Trial (N 456)
• 2004-2007 Longitudinal Follow-up (N 374)

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Child Outcome Measures

• Social/Emotional Understanding
• Infant Facial Expression of Emotion Task (Emde et
  al.,1993)
• Understanding of Mixed Emotions (Brown Dunn,
  1996)
• Chandler Cartoon Task (Chandler, 1973)
• The Relationship Questionnaire Interpersonal
  Understanding subscale (Schultz Selman, 2000)
• Empathy-related Responding (Davis, 1983)
• Parenting Sense of Competence (Gibaud-Walston
  Wandersman, 1978)
• Classroom Autonomy and Supportiveness
  (Battistich, Solomon, Watson, Schaps, 1997)

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Child Outcome Measures (contd)

• Teacher Reports (Teacher Reports Child Behavior
  Scale, Ladd Profilet, 1996 NLSCY)
• Proactive Aggression cold blooded (bullying)
• Reactive Aggression hot-headed
• Relational Aggression (indirect) e.g., gossip
• Prosocial Behaviors (share, help, cooperate)
• Peer Behavioural Assessments (Parkhurst Asher,
  1992 Schonert-Reichl, 1999 Wentzel, 1997)
• Prosocial Behaviors (share, help, cooperate)
• Prosocial Characteristics (kind, trustworthy,
  takes perspectives)
• Proactive, Reactive, Relational Aggression
• Peer Acceptance

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• Summary of Key Findings
• (2000-2003)

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2000-2001 Changes in Proactive Bullying
Aggression from Pretest to Post-Test by Group
Comparison Children
Roots of Empathy Children
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2001-2002 Changes in Teachers Reports of Social
Behaviors
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2001-2002 Changes in Peer Assessments of
Prosocial Behaviors and Prosocial Characteristics
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• Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)

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Year 4 2003-2004, RCT

• Participants
• 456 children (46 girls)
• 10 ROE Program classrooms (n 234) in 10 schools
• 10 Comparison classrooms (n 222) in 10 schools
• Grades 4-7 (Mean Age 10.71, SD 1.1)
• 53 English as a First Language
• Classrooms were randomly assigned to serve as
  either program or comparison classrooms.

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Change Scores for Interpersonal Understanding and
Peer Intimacy (Pretest to Posttest)
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Change Scores for Teachers Ratings of Prosocial
Behaviour (Pretest to Posttest)
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Change Scores for Teachers Ratings of Aggression
(Pretest to Posttest)
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Change Scores for Peer Nominations of Prosocial
Behaviors (Pretest to Posttest)
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Change Scores for Classroom Supportiveness
(Pretest to Posttest)
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What have we learned so far?

• Across the 4 years of research, children who
  receive ROE in contrast to those who do not, show
  significant improvements in the following areas
• Increased understanding of emotion
• Increased prosocial behaviors
• Decreased aggression/bullying
• These findings are in direct concordance with the
  ROE program goals.
• These findings demonstrated some consistency
  across grade levels, settings, informants, and
  measures utilized.

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Classroom Practice Informing Developmental Theory

• Caring Classroom Environment

• Emotion
• Processes

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Some Future Directions The search for
mechanisms/processes

• Longitudinal follow-up
• Are changes sustained?
• Sleeper effects?
• Changes across developmental transitions
• Effects of ROE on internalizing problems
• The mediating role of classroom context
• Psychobiologic correlates (biological roots of
  ROE)
• Subgroup analyses of high risk children
• Examine relation between childrens knowledge of
  infant development and their behaviors with
  infant siblings/other infants.
• Implementation and sustainability

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Contact Information

• Kim Schonert-Reichl
• Dept. of Educational and Counselling Psychology,
  Special Education
• University of British Columbia
• Office [phone]
• Research Lab [phone]
• E-mail kimberly.schonert-reichl_at_ubc.ca

• Roots of Empathy
• [phone]
• Website www.rootsofempathy.org

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