"Research Findings": Empathy is a relevant component of social interactions that can be observed from early childhood. Validated tests for young children are still scarce. This study has two goals: (1) to validate the modified two-factor version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) in Spanish children between the ages of 3 and 8;…

This investigation examined the role of students' social-emotional need satisfaction in relation to academic engagement and social-emotional skills. Among a sample of 501 secondary school students (and their parents/carers), several need satisfaction variables were examined: perceived social-emotional autonomy, perceived social competence,…

American teens are 40 percent less empathetic than they were three decades ago. Recognizing that students need more than academic rigor to succeed, a growing number of schools are turning their focus to social-emotional qualities like empathy. But which practices enhance empathy and how will principals know if teachers are implementing them…

Empathy entails basic cognitive processes such as the recognition of facial expressions and basic emotional processes such as emotional contagion, but also higher-order cognitive processes such as abstract reasoning about the other person's emotional states and higher-order emotional processes such as empathic concern. Thus, empathy must be…

Many schools and out-of-school organizations use social-emotional learning (SEL) programs to boost students' skills. Yet research shows that these programs can be difficult to implement and don't always meet students' needs. In response, Rebecca Bailey, Laura Stickle, Gretchen Brion-Meisels, and Stephanie Jones propose a new approach to SEL…

This study examined emotion understanding and reconciliation in 47 (24 girls) 4-6-year-old preschool children. Participants first completed emotion recognition tasks and then answered questions regarding reconciliation tendencies and affective perspective-taking in a series of overt and relational aggressive conflict scenarios. Children's teachers…

Background: A deficit in empathy is discussed to underlie difficulties in social interaction of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and conduct disorder (CD). To date, no study has compared children with ASD and different subtypes of CD to describe disorder-specific empathy profiles in clinical samples. Furthermore, little is known about…

A growing interest exists in the measuring of social adaptive functioning in children with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities (MBID), but valid instruments to measure this construct are lacking. The aim of the present study was to develop such an instrument and to examine it on its discriminate validity. In 141 children aged 8-12 years a…

Discusses ways of helping children learn to care for one another. Notes that even very young children respond with empathy to others' expressed distress. Explores ways to enhance children's natural empathy in terms of empathy as identification, as communication, as a caring act, as a moral act, and as respect. (DLH)

Headsmart Adventures is an interpersonal skills curriculum designed for nine to eleven-year old children which was the subject of a quasi-experimental study in seven Philadelphia area schools. The evaluation was based on results of a structured interview and two affective tests specially designed to measure the goals of the program. The purpose of…

Examines whether affective perspective taking (the ability to identify and understand another person's feelings) plays a more significant role in altruistic helping than does cognitive perspective taking (the ability to recognize and understand the thoughts of others). This hypothesis is supported by the results of an experiment pairing videotape…

Describes several skills that educators and parents should promote in children and teens entrusted to their care. The skills include self-awareness, self-regulation of emotion, self-monitoring and performance, empathy and perspective taking, and social skills in handling relationships. (SM)

This curriculum guide is intended to increase elementary students' awareness of their own and other people's perspectives, resulting in more open attitudes and flexible responses to diversity. Unique features include reflective questions for teachers, a focus on communicating content to families, and planned inclusion of students with…