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The Me and the Us of Emotions: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the feasibility and efficacy of a compassion-based social–emotional learning program for children

There are well-established benefits of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs for children within educational contexts. Combining social–emotional skills and compassion abilities has been seldomly done, and it may be valuable at individual and societal levels, for resilient, empathetic, and in...

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Autores principales: Xavier, Ana, Vagos, Paula, Palmeira, Lara, Menezes, Paulo, Patrão, Bruno, Mendes, Sofia Abreu, Tavares, Marta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10646560/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38023010
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1196457
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author Xavier, Ana
Vagos, Paula
Palmeira, Lara
Menezes, Paulo
Patrão, Bruno
Mendes, Sofia Abreu
Tavares, Marta
author_facet Xavier, Ana
Vagos, Paula
Palmeira, Lara
Menezes, Paulo
Patrão, Bruno
Mendes, Sofia Abreu
Tavares, Marta
author_sort Xavier, Ana
collection PubMed
description There are well-established benefits of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs for children within educational contexts. Combining social–emotional skills and compassion abilities has been seldomly done, and it may be valuable at individual and societal levels, for resilient, empathetic, and inclusive societies. This study explored the feasibility and efficacy of a program designed to promote socioemotional and compassion skills in children attending the 3rd and 4th grades, by using in-class dynamics complemented with serious games. This program, named “The Me and the Us of Emotions,” is part of the Gulbenkian Knowledge Academies 2020 and consists of 10 group sessions embedded in the school curriculum. Using a cluster-randomized controlled trial design, school classes were allocated to intervention (classes, n = 8; children, n = 163) and control groups (classes, n = 6; children, n = 132). During the program, facilitators assessed adherence to the sessions’ plan, attendance, dosage (i.e., how many sessions were delivered), and participant responsiveness. Children completed self-report measures of social–emotional skills and emotional climate at pre-, post-intervention, 3-month, and 6-month follow-ups. Results indicate that the program is feasible, with high adherence, high attendance rate, and participant responsiveness. Results also indicate empathy, soothing, and drive feelings to change from pre-intervention to all other assessment moments, for the intervention group only. Moreover, cooperation and threat changed over time for participants in both the control and the intervention groups. The current study offers empirical support for the feasibility and utility of a compassion-based social–emotional learning program on promoting children’s empathy, and emotions of soothing and vitality in the school context. Thus, these findings contribute to recent research on the potential added value of compassion practices within an SEL program.
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spelling pubmed-106465602023-11-01 The Me and the Us of Emotions: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the feasibility and efficacy of a compassion-based social–emotional learning program for children Xavier, Ana Vagos, Paula Palmeira, Lara Menezes, Paulo Patrão, Bruno Mendes, Sofia Abreu Tavares, Marta Front Psychol Psychology There are well-established benefits of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs for children within educational contexts. Combining social–emotional skills and compassion abilities has been seldomly done, and it may be valuable at individual and societal levels, for resilient, empathetic, and inclusive societies. This study explored the feasibility and efficacy of a program designed to promote socioemotional and compassion skills in children attending the 3rd and 4th grades, by using in-class dynamics complemented with serious games. This program, named “The Me and the Us of Emotions,” is part of the Gulbenkian Knowledge Academies 2020 and consists of 10 group sessions embedded in the school curriculum. Using a cluster-randomized controlled trial design, school classes were allocated to intervention (classes, n = 8; children, n = 163) and control groups (classes, n = 6; children, n = 132). During the program, facilitators assessed adherence to the sessions’ plan, attendance, dosage (i.e., how many sessions were delivered), and participant responsiveness. Children completed self-report measures of social–emotional skills and emotional climate at pre-, post-intervention, 3-month, and 6-month follow-ups. Results indicate that the program is feasible, with high adherence, high attendance rate, and participant responsiveness. Results also indicate empathy, soothing, and drive feelings to change from pre-intervention to all other assessment moments, for the intervention group only. Moreover, cooperation and threat changed over time for participants in both the control and the intervention groups. The current study offers empirical support for the feasibility and utility of a compassion-based social–emotional learning program on promoting children’s empathy, and emotions of soothing and vitality in the school context. Thus, these findings contribute to recent research on the potential added value of compassion practices within an SEL program. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-11-01 /pmc/articles/PMC10646560/ /pubmed/38023010 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1196457 Text en Copyright © 2023 Xavier, Vagos, Palmeira, Menezes, Patrão, Mendes and Tavares. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Xavier, Ana
Vagos, Paula
Palmeira, Lara
Menezes, Paulo
Patrão, Bruno
Mendes, Sofia Abreu
Tavares, Marta
The Me and the Us of Emotions: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the feasibility and efficacy of a compassion-based social–emotional learning program for children
title The Me and the Us of Emotions: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the feasibility and efficacy of a compassion-based social–emotional learning program for children
title_full The Me and the Us of Emotions: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the feasibility and efficacy of a compassion-based social–emotional learning program for children
title_fullStr The Me and the Us of Emotions: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the feasibility and efficacy of a compassion-based social–emotional learning program for children
title_full_unstemmed The Me and the Us of Emotions: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the feasibility and efficacy of a compassion-based social–emotional learning program for children
title_short The Me and the Us of Emotions: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the feasibility and efficacy of a compassion-based social–emotional learning program for children
title_sort me and the us of emotions: a cluster-randomized controlled trial of the feasibility and efficacy of a compassion-based social–emotional learning program for children
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10646560/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/38023010
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1196457
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