We examined the effectiveness of a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) compared to a social-emotional empathy-based intervention (EBI), and a passive control group in promoting compassion among Jewish-Israeli kindergartners. Three middle-class public kindergartens were randomly assigned to the MBI (n = 26;M[subscript age] = 5.03), EBI (n =…

This article presents the findings of a research study examining the impact of creative puppetry activities on aggressive behaviour in preschool children. The aim of creative drama was to allow for experiences that help children understand interpersonal relations, put themselves in another's shoes and see alternative possibilities of behaving or…

The current study was carried out to determine the problems that preschool children experience during COVID-19 and also what could be done from perspectives of preschool prospective teachers. The working group of the study was made up of 45 projects prepared by 15 preschool prospective teachers attending to the midterm exam of lecture of…

For millennia, adults have told children stories not only to entertain but also to impart important moral lessons to promote prosocial behaviors. Many such stories contain anthropomorphized animals because it is believed that children learn from anthropomorphic stories as effectively, if not better than, from stories with human characters, and…

Children engage in a multitude of reciprocal relationships of care within Early Childhood Care and Education settings; they act as both care-receivers and care-givers. In order to better understand the ways in which children construct care (i.e. as they receive it and provide it to others), this study investigated how 15 three- to five-year-olds…

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…

Early childhood educators' (ECE) perceptions of gender roles may contribute to the development of children's own gender-role identities. This qualitative study examined 40 Canadian female ECEs' perceptions of gender and children's shy, aggressive, and prosocial behaviors. Content analysis of extensive interviews revealed three themes: (1) shyness…

Preschool boys' pretense and coconstruction of shared meanings during two play sessions (superhero and generic toys) were investigated with 58 middle-class boys ("M" age = 54.95 mos.). The frequency of dyadic pretense and the coconstruction of shared meanings in the play were coded. The frequency of pretense did not vary across the two…

Research on territorial behavior has focused on animal populations, and relatively little has dealt with territoriality in humans, except in the area of human sports. This study was an investigation of the prior-residence effect on children's behavior in social dilemmas. The analysis was carried out by means of research designed for preschool…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the multimedia social stories on the duration of appropriate social engagement of 3 young children with autism. Using a multiple-baseline-across-participants design, the multimedia social stories were implemented, and observations of 10-min play sessions were conducted three times per…

We examined associations of maternal and child emotional discourse and child emotion knowledge with children's behavioral competence. Eighty-five upper middle-income, mostly White preschoolers and mothers completed a home-based bookreading task to assess discourse about emotions. Children's anger perception bias and emotion situation knowledge…

Prevention programs in schools are one response to youth, community, and family violence. Many of these programs target older children and adolescents. This quasi-experimental study evaluated the preschool curriculum of the Peacemakers program, which was developed by a consortium of social service agencies for implementation in schools. This…

This study examined emotional responding (sympathy and distress) and prosocial behavior as well as their relations across four cultures in a specific context. Preschool children (N = 212) from two Western cultures, Germany and Israel, and two South-East Asian cultures, Indonesia and Malaysia, participated in this study. Children's emotional…

Children with secure attachments at 12 and 18 months of age were found to be more empathic and prosocial toward others as preschoolers. (PCB)

Explores imitations of prosocial actions by 5 mainstreamed handicapped and 10 nonhandicapped preschoolers. Argues that teacher education for work in mainstreamed settings needs to include attention to methods by which young children can be encouraged in prosocial behavior. (DE)