Nurturing child social-emotional development: evaluation of a pre-post and 2-month follow-up uncontrolled pilot training for caregivers and educators

BACKGROUND

Social-emotional capacities contribute to children's mental health by helping them navigate their own and others' emotional states and forge healthy relationships. Caregivers and educators are critical socialization agents in early and middle childhood, but gaps remain in the systematic integration of social-emotional research into caregiver and educator trainings. The aim of this pilot study was to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a social-emotional training designed to promote caregivers' and educators' capacities to support social-emotional development in children ages 3-8 years.

METHODS

Fifty adults (n = 24 caregivers of children ages 3-8 years, n = 26 educators working with children ages 3-8 years) participated in a virtual training over 3 weeks. Participants completed pre-training, post-training, and 2-month follow-up questionnaires evaluating their knowledge of social-emotional concepts, use of training strategies, mental health, and satisfaction with the training. Caregivers also reported children's social-emotional capacities and mental health.

RESULTS

On average, caregivers and educators completed 83% of the virtual training sessions and reported high satisfaction with the training. Further, preliminary evidence indicated that caregivers' and educators' knowledge of social-emotional concepts increased pre- to post-training and was maintained at the 2-month follow-up. Increases in caregivers' and educators' knowledge and greater use of training strategies were associated with improvements in children's social-emotional capacities and caregivers' and educators' own mental health.

CONCLUSIONS

These pilot results support the feasibility of infusing evidence-based social-emotional content into caregiver and educator training initiatives aimed at nurturing child social-emotional development and mental health. The results inform future evaluation of the short- and long-term benefits of this training with a full-scale randomized controlled trial design.

Effectiveness and mechanisms of change of a mindfulness-based intervention on elementary school children: A cluster-randomized control trial

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in the school context are increasingly widespread worldwide. The present study evaluates the effectiveness of a school-MBI (GrowingUp Breathing program) on children's socio-emotional and academic development. Three hundred thirteen elementary students from 7 to 12 years old from two schools in Madrid (Spain) participated. A cluster-randomized control trial was designed, assigning eight classrooms to the MBI-group (N = 155) and eight classrooms to the waiting-list control group (N = 158). Measures were evaluated at pre- and post-intervention in both groups and a 3-month follow-up was collected in the MBI-group. Children self-reported their mindfulness skills (i.e., dispositional mindfulness and psychological inflexibility) and well-being (i.e., anxiety and life satisfaction) and teachers evaluated children's social-emotional competence (i.e., emotion regulation, peer-relationship problems, and prosociality), well-being (i.e., emotional symptoms), and academic competence (i.e., student engagement and academic achievement). Mindfulness skills and emotional regulation were examined as potential mediators. Results revealed that children who received the MBI, compared to children in the WLC-group, improved their mindfulness skills, emotion regulation, prosociality, and emotional and behavioral engagement and decreased anxiety and peer-relationship problems. Positive changes in dispositional mindfulness led to reductions in children's anxiety and psychological inflexibility. Positive changes in emotional regulation led to improvements in prosociality and student engagement and decreased peer-relationships problems and emotional symptoms. Therefore, the results showed that a brief-MBI integrated in the Spanish regular school curriculum enhanced children's socio-emotional and academic development. Dispositional mindfulness and emotion regulation work as processes of change that underlie the intervention's impact.

Values mediated emotional adjustment by emotion regulation: A longitudinal study among adolescents in China

Values have a direct impact on adolescents’ mental health. However, its potential mediated mechanism has received little attention. A 1-year longitudinal survey design was used to explore the mediating role of emotion regulation in the relationships between self-transcendence (vs. self-enhancement) values and emotional adjustment among adolescents. Participants were 863 senior school students from Shanghai and Qingdao, Shandong Province. Data on self-transcendence and self-enhancement values, loneliness, depression, and emotion regulation were collected at 2019 and 2020 by using self-report measures. The results showed that (1) adolescents’ endorsement with self-transcendence values decreased and self-enhancement values increased; compared to adolescents in Qingdao, adolescents in Shanghai were more depressed, (2) emotion regulation only mediated the effect of self-transcendence values on loneliness, and (3) not only the relationship between self-transcendence values and depression, but also the relationships between self-enhancement values and loneliness and depression were suppressed by emotion regulation. The study may provide more empirical evidences for the benefits of self-transcendence values and may also give more references on how to improve adolescents’ emotional adjustment.

Attachment and prosocial behavior in middle childhood: The role of emotion regulation

There is a lack of research on the development of prosocial behavior in middle childhood. The current study addressed this gap through the application of attachment theory; attachment security has been shown to promote prosocial behavior in early childhood, and emotion regulation may be an important intervening variable in this association. A sample of 199 children (aged 6-12 years) reported on their attachment internal working models for the mother-child and father-child relationships, parents reported on child emotion regulation and emotional lability/dysregulation, and children completed a sticker donation task to assess their prosocial behavior. Child emotional lability/dysregulation served as an intervening variable in the association between father-child attachment security (communication and trust) and greater sticker donation. Mother-child and father-child attachment security was also associated with child emotion regulation, but emotion regulation was not associated with sticker donation. Findings suggest that secure attachment may foster prosocial behavior toward peers in middle childhood primarily by reducing dysregulated responses to the distress of others.

Parental warmth predicts more child pro-social behaviour in children with better emotion regulation

Parental warmth and child emotion regulation have each been implicated in the development of child pro-social behaviours; however, their interactive benefits remain unclear. In this multi-method, multi-cohort longitudinal study, we examined the effect of parental warmth on child pro-social behaviours at different levels of child emotion regulation. We collected data from 6- and 10-year-olds in Canada (N_T1  = 233; M_age  = 8.41; SD = 2.08) and their parents. Parental warmth, child emotion regulation, and child pro-social behaviours were assessed via parent report. Children's baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA; an indicator of cardiac regulatory capacity) was assessed as a correlate of emotion regulation. Child pro-social behaviours were assessed concurrently and 1 year later. Results showed that higher parental warmth was related to higher concurrent prosocial behaviours and greater increases in prosocial behaviours over 1 year. These effects were strengthened for children with higher emotion regulation whether measured by parent report or RSA. We discuss implications for understanding pro-social development in middle childhood from a strengths-based perspective.

Trust, Forgiveness, and Peace: The Influence of Adolescent Social Identity in a Setting of Intergroup Conflict

Following the signing of peace agreements, post-accord societies often remain deeply divided across group lines. There is a need to identify antecedents of youth's support for peace and establish more constructive intergroup relations. This article explored the effect of out-group trust, intergroup forgiveness and social identity on support for the peace process among youth from the historic majority and minorities communities in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The sample comprised of 667 adolescents (49% male; M=15.74, SD=1.99 years old) across two time points. Results from the structural equation model suggested that out-group trust was related to intergroup forgiveness over time, while forgiveness related to later support for the peace process. Strength of in-group social identity differentially moderated how out-group trust and intergroup forgiveness relate to later support for peace among youth from the conflict-related groups (i.e., Protestants and Catholics). Implications for consolidating peace in Northern Ireland are discussed, which may be relevant to other settings affected by intergroup conflict.

Developmental Relations between Children's Peer Relationship Quality and Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of Trust

Positive peer relationships are important for children's prosocial development, yet the mechanisms that explain how peers contribute to prosocial outcomes during the preschool and early school years remain understudied. The present study used a prospective longitudinal design to examine whether children's degree of trust in others mediated the association between prior peer relationship quality and later prosocial behavior in a Canadian sample (N = 150; T1 M_age= 4.53 years, 50% female). Primary caregivers (84% mothers) reported on children's peer relationship quality (at age 4), trust in others (ages 4 and 5), and prosocial behavior (ages 4 and 6). Controlling for initial levels of trust and prosocial behavior at age 4, longitudinal path modeling indicated that higher quality peer relationships directly predicted relative increases in trust at age 5. In turn, increased trust at age 5 predicted relative increases in prosocial behavior at age 6. Consistent with longitudinal mediation, the indirect effect of peer relationship quality on later prosocial behavior via trust was also significant. Sensitivity analyses further indicated that these effects held over and above the potential confounding influence of parental warmth and externalizing behavioral problems (assessed at age 6). Programs designed to promote prosocial skills in early childhood may benefit from an increased emphasis on building and maintaining children's interpersonal trust.

Children experiencing sadness: Coping strategies and attachment relationships

This study aimed to explore the events which are sources of sadness for children, and their coping strategies for overcoming their sadness according to their attachment security. We expected that distinct clusters would emerge, with securely attached children more likely showing constructive and successful coping strategies than insecurely attached children. Middle-class children (N = 191) aged 7-11 years old from four private elementary schools were asked to talk about a sad event they experienced using open-ended questions from the Sadness Interview. The answers were coded into different categories of sad events and associated coping strategies. Finally, children were assessed on their security attachment using the Security Scale. Cluster analyses identified a four-cluster solution. Children in the Clusters 1 and 2 were characterized by a perceived successful constructive coping strategy while describing minor events (in the first Cluster), and very painful events (in the second). Furthermore, in the third Cluster children overcame sad events using a perceived successful disengagement coping strategy, whereas children in the fourth Cluster are characterized by perceived unresolved sadness. ANCOVA testing showed that children in the first cluster had significantly higher attachment security compared to Clusters 3 and 4, which did not significantly differ from each other. The study of sadness in children may be particularly informative for clinicians and educators for understanding and supporting children's strategies of sadness management while considering the influence of their attachment relationships on their ability to cope with sadness.

Prosocial cascades: Understanding and nurturing the potential for positive developmental trajectories

Understanding the developmental cycles and mechanisms that nurture prosocial behavior can support our potential to build a kinder and more peaceful society. The current chapter explores positive developmental cascades, with a focus on the chain reactions that explain how prosocial behaviors manifest and evolve throughout childhood and adolescence. Specifically, we review the main issues, theories, and findings related to the study of children's prosocial trajectories. We focus on various socialization environments that span typical and adverse (e.g., trauma, poverty, maltreatment, exposure to violence) contexts. Furthermore, we highlight the evidence behind efforts and initiatives that aim to nurture prosociality in children and families. We conclude with future directions for how research on positive cascades can inform research-practice alliances work that aims to break harmful cycles and promote prosocial mechanisms of change.

Refugee Children's Social-Emotional Capacities: Links to Mental Health upon Resettlement and Buffering Effects on Pre-Migratory Adversity

Refugee children who experience severe pre-migratory adversity often show varying levels of mental health upon resettlement. Thus, it is critical to identify the factors that explain which refugee children experience more vs. less healthy outcomes. The present study assessed child social-emotional capacities (i.e., emotion regulation, sympathy, optimism, and trust) as potential moderators of associations between child, parental, and familial pre-migratory adversities and child mental health (i.e., internalizing and externalizing symptoms) upon resettlement. Participants were N = 123 five- to 12-year-old Syrian refugee children and their mothers living in Canada. Children and mothers reported their pre-migratory adverse life experiences, and mothers reported their children's current social-emotional capacities, internalizing symptoms, and externalizing symptoms. Greater familial (i.e., the sum of children's and their mother's) pre-migratory adversity was associated with higher child internalizing and externalizing symptoms upon resettlement. Higher emotion regulation and optimism were associated with lower internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and higher sympathy was associated with lower externalizing symptoms. In contrast, higher trust was associated with higher internalizing symptoms. Finally, higher child optimism buffered against the positive association between familial pre-migratory adversity and child internalizing symptoms. In sum, select social-emotional capacities may serve as potential protective factors that support mental health and buffer against the deleterious effects of pre-migratory adversity in refugee children.

Social Avoidance and Social Adjustment: The Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation and Emotion Lability/Negativity Among Chinese Preschool Children

The present study explored the role of emotion regulation and emotion lability/negativity as a moderator in the relation between child social avoidance and social adjustment (i.e., interpersonal skills, asocial behavior, peer exclusion) in Chinese culture. Participants were N = 194 children (102 boys, 92 girls, M_age = 70.82 months, SD = 5.40) recruited from nine classrooms in two public kindergartens in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Multi-source assessments were employed with mothers rating children’s social avoidance and teachers rating children’s emotion regulation, emotion lability/negativity and social adjustment outcomes. The results indicated that the relations between social avoidance and social adjustment difficulties were more negative among children lower in emotion regulation, but not significant for children with higher emotion regulation. In contrast, the relations between social avoidance and social adjustment difficulties were more positive among children higher in emotion lability/negativity, but not significant for children with lower emotion lability/negativity. This study informs us about how emotion regulation and emotion lability/negativity are jointly associated with socially avoidant children’s development. As well, the findings highlight the importance of considering the meaning and implication of social avoidance in Chinese culture.

The roles of temperamental inhibition in affective and cognitive empathy in Chinese toddlers

Empathy, crucial to harmonious interpersonal relationships and moral development, has both affective and cognitive components. Previous studies found that toddlers' temperamental inhibition may influence their empathy, but mainly focused on emotional response to others' distress. Little is known about whether inhibited children's poor empathy is due to high reactivity and social withdrawal when sharing others' affective states, such as distress (affective empathy), or to a difficulty in comprehending and inferring others' perspective (cognitive empathy). The current study investigated the role of behavioral inhibition (BI) in affective empathy (response to pain simulation) and cognitive empathy (performance in perspective-taking task) among 163 Chinese toddlers and tested in both only and non-only children. Correlation analyses showed that BI was only negatively associated with affective empathy. The relation between BI and cognitive empathy was moderated by self-regulation and inhibited children who were low in self-regulation presented low cognitive empathy. Additionally, only children presented advanced cognitive empathy but poorer affective empathy than non-only children. These findings imply different roles of BI in affective versus cognitive empathy in early childhood. Although highly inhibited children rarely show positive social expression toward others' distress, caution is needed in inferring that they lack a capacity for cognitive empathy.

Disengagement is as revealing as prosocial action for young children’s responding to strangers in distress: How personal distress and empathic concern come into play

In a paradigm of simulated stranger distress designed to elicit empathic arousal, this study examined multiple elements of responding in 61 preschoolers. Disengagement from stranger distress was underscored in addition to prosocial responding. All children encountered a female adult stranger feigning stomach ache followed by an infant manikin emitting cry sound in a bassinet. Behaviors were coded for other-oriented behaviors, personal distress, and disengagement. In contrast to the traditional supposition, behaviors indicative of personal distress covaried positively with empathic concern and negatively with disengagement. The findings of multiple regression analysis demonstrated how empathic concern and personal distress jointly related to disengaging behaviors in children’s response to stranger distress.

Inhibitory control moderates the quadratic association between resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia and prosocial behaviors in children

Resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is thought to be an important physiological correlate of prosocial behaviors. A negative quadratic association between resting RSA and prosocial behaviors has been found in recent studies. However, it remains unknown whether inhibitory control (IC), as an aspect of cognitive regulation, moderates this quadratic association. This issue was examined in the present study. One hundred and forty-eight children (81 girls, 54.7%) aged 7-8 years completed a go/no-go task to assess their IC, and the children's parents completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire-Chinese version (SDQ-CV) to assess children's prosocial behaviors. Resting RSA was calculated by electrocardiogram (ECG) data collected during a resting period in the laboratory. The results showed a significant quadratic association between resting RSA and children's prosocial behaviors. More importantly, IC had a significant moderating effect on the quadratic association between resting RSA and prosocial behaviors. Specifically, the quadratic effect of resting RSA on prosocial behaviors was observed only among children with low and average IC and disappeared in children with better IC. The findings suggest that IC interacts with resting RSA to contribute to prosocial behaviors in children. High levels of IC could attenuate the negative impact of high and low resting RSA on prosocial behaviors.

Anger and Sadness Regulation in Refugee Children: The Roles of Pre- and Post-migratory Factors

Pre- and post-migratory factors have been implicated in refugee children's mental health. However, findings regarding their unique and joint roles are inconsistent or nonexistent. We examined the main and interactive relations of pre-migratory life stressors and post-migratory daily hassles and routines to emotion regulation-a key marker of mental health-in 5- to 13-year-old Syrian refugee children (N = 103) resettling in Canada. Mothers and children completed questionnaires assessing pre-migratory life stressors and post-migratory daily hassles. Mothers also reported their children's adherence to family routines and emotion regulation abilities (i.e., anger and sadness regulation) via questionnaire. Overall, children who more frequently engaged in family routines showed better anger regulation. Pre- and post-migratory factors also interacted, such that greater post-migratory daily hassles were associated with worse sadness regulation for children with lower levels of pre-migratory life stressors, but were unassociated with the sadness regulation of children who experienced higher levels of pre-migratory life stressors. Results suggest that pre- and post-migratory factors play unique and joint roles in refugee children's emotion regulation during resettlement.

Taming anger and trusting others: Roles of skin conductance, anger regulation, and trust in children's aggression

Proactive and reactive aggression subtypes are distinguishable as early as the preschool years. However, their early physiological and social-emotional correlates have not been examined simultaneously. We tested whether children's skin conductance level, anger regulation, and trust in others were differentially related to their proactive and reactive aggression. Four-year-olds and their primary caregivers were recruited from a large Canadian city (N = 150). Controlling for reactive aggression, higher trust was associated with lower proactive aggression, but only for children with low anger regulation or skin conductance level. Controlling for proactive aggression, lower anger regulation was related to higher reactive aggression, and higher trust was related to higher reactive aggression for children with high skin conductance level. Findings highlight the unique and collective relations of physiology, emotion regulation, and trust to different forms of aggression in early childhood. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject Proactive and reactive aggression subtypes are distinguishable as early as the preschool years. Unique physiological and social-emotional correlates of each subtype have been studied in middle and late childhood. Trust is a critical milestone for positive social interactions in early childhood and has been linked to aggression. What the present study adds Physiological and social-emotional correlates are uniquely linked to subtypes of aggression already at age 4. Trust is differentially linked to aggression subtypes as a function of anger regulation and skin conductance level.

Facing others' misfortune: Personal distress mediates the association between maladaptive emotion regulation and social avoidance

Previous research has linked the use of certain emotion regulation strategies to the vicarious experience of personal distress (PD) and empathic concern (EC). However, it has not yet been tested whether (1) vicarious PD is positively associated with maladaptive emotion regulation strategies, (2) vicarious EC is positively associated with adaptive emotion regulation strategies or whether (3) PD and EC mediate the link between emotion regulation and reports of approach/avoidance in response to a person in distress. To that end, we assessed people’s reports of PD (i.e., anxious, troubled and upset) and EC (i.e., concerned, sympathetic and soft-hearted) in response to a video depicting a person in a threatening situation (n = 78). Afterwards, we assessed participants’ reports of avoidance and approach with regard to the character and their disposition to use maladaptive and adaptive emotion regulation strategies. Results showed that both PD and EC were positively related to maladaptive strategies and negatively related to adaptive strategies, and that the association between maladaptive regulation strategies (i.e., rumination) and the willingness to avoid the person in distress was mediated by reports of greater PD. This study thus expands previous evidence on the relationship between maladaptive regulation strategies and affective empathy and provides novel insights into the main role that PD plays in the association between maladaptive strategies and social avoidance.

Physiological mechanisms of prosociality

Psychophysiological perspectives can provide unique insights into the nature and motivations of children's prosociality and inform our understanding of individual differences. Here, I review current research on prosociality involving some of the most common physiological measures in developmental psychology, including cortisol, various sympathetic nervous system measures, and high-frequency heart rate variability. The literature has been quite mixed, in part because the link between physiology and prosociality is context-dependent and person-dependent. However, recent advances are refining our understanding of the basic physiological mechanisms of prosociality. Resting physiology that contributes to a balance of regulation and vigilance prepares children to effectively cope with future social challenges, like noticing and attending to the needs of others. Experiencing some arousal is an important aspect of empathy-related responding, but physiological patterns of both heightened and hypoarousal can undermine prosociality. Physiological flexibility in response to others' needs may support emotional and behavioral flexibility important for prosociality.