This study examined children's self-assessment of their prosociality, relative to average peers, in situations where the recipient is described as "needy" versus "not needy" (at a school of average socioeconomic level in south Israel; N = 158; aged 6-12 years; 51% males, December-May 2021). The results show that older children…

Yoga has been found to improve people's lives in many ways. However, there is limited research on using chair yoga instead of mat yoga, especially with children in school settings. The current quasi-experimental study explored whether participating in eight sessions of chair yoga at school improved fourth-grade students' (n=42) self-reports of…

This study explores the effects of direct kindness instruction on second-grade students' social and emotional well-being. Amidst the growing integration of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) into educational curricula, this research specifically focuses on the aspect of kindness, a vital yet often under-explored component of SEL. Conducted in a…

Alexithymia has an important effect on learning burnout; however, the underlying mechanism of this relation remains unclear. This study aims to examine why alexithymia is related to increased learning burnout. Here, we investigated associations between alexithymia and learning burnout, as well as the potential mediating role of self-compassion in…

A growing body of experimental literature investigates how student-level background characteristics are associated with dishonest behavior in early adolescence. However, results from prior studies are mixed. To revisit earlier findings, we conducted a comprehensive literature review and executed two consecutive, large-scale, incentivized surveys…

This study tests the effects of performing daily kind acts over a 4-week period on upper elementary students' subjective well-being (happiness) and academic engagement. It also tests the correlation between increases in both measures. Upper elementary students often experience a decrease in academic engagement due to increased difficulty and…

This study examines the relationship between reputational threat and altruistic behavior in children aged 6-11 and explores how social inhibition and group relationships affect this behavior. Study 1 involved 204 children and found that age and reputational threat influence altruism, with age 8 being a key turning point. Study 2 focused on 130…

There is increasing evidence to show that compassion and altruism are highly beneficial when cultivated from an early age. In the present study we explore the benefits of an intervention programme that seeks to develop affective empathy, compassion and altruism in 9-year-old children from a school of Buenos Aires, Argentina. A pretest-posttest…

Creating Compassion is an empathy-focused creative arts curriculum designed to provide short-term, low-cost, high-quality social-emotional learning (SEL) to communities and settings with limited resources. The present study sought to determine whether Creating Compassion was effective for increasing displays of prosocial behaviors and broad SEL…

Generic descriptions (e.g., 'girls are emotional') are argued to play a major role in the development of essentialist reasoning about social categories. Although generics are prevalent across languages, studies exploring if and how generic language leads to essentialism have almost exclusively been conducted in English-speaking communities and…

The community of Putrajawa, Selaawi Garut, is known for its cultural and religious diversity. Parents face the challenge of ensuring that Islamic religious education within the family instills not only religious understanding but also an appreciation for diversity. Exclusive religious teachings can foster intolerance, making it crucial to embed…

Teachers, administrators, counselors and other school staff may experience secondary traumatic stress (STS), also known as compassion fatigue (CF), stemming from their work with students impacted by trauma. However, there is limited research to describe the effect of these experiences on adults in schools. This qualitative, phenomenological study…

This article analyzes how schools in the U.S respond to trauma in children and teens after the homicide of a peer and provides suggestions for best practices. The focus is not on in-school mass shootings but on homicide of young people outside of schools, in neighborhoods, which is the leading cause of death for African Americans between ages 15…

In times of deep crisis, the most powerful critical contemplative pedagogy available to us is that of supporting all children and youth in learning to teach and teaching to learn as a primary path toward self-realization, social inquiry and civic contribution. This vital opportunity should be made accessible to all students, regardless of…

Children make choices between generosity and greed every day. Often they must also choose between confession or denial of antisocial acts like greed, thereby displaying either honesty or hypocrisy. Such choices pose cognitive challenges that, in theory, might reflect children's developing social-cognitions and affect their daily social lives and…