The Social, Emotional, and Moral Lives of Young Children: Preliminary Findings from The CHILD Projec

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The Social, Emotional, and Moral Lives of Young
Children Preliminary Findings from The CHILD
Project

• Innovative Assessment Practices Supporting
  Families and Community
• Kim Schonert-Reichl, Ph.D.Angela Jaramillo,
  M.A.
• Dept. of Educational Counselling Psychology,
  Special EducationUniversity of British Columbia
• May 24, 2007

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Overview of Session

• Introduction
• Why should we be concerned with young childrens
  social and emotional competence?
• The Current Research
• From Theory to Practice Prevention Programs
• The Safe Spaces Program
• Assessing young childrens social and emotional
  competence
• Research study and examples of measures
• Preliminary Findings

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Discussion Stop
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Discussion Stop

• In pairs or groups of three
• Why do you think we should we be concerned about
  social and emotional development in young
  children?
• How can we promote social and emotional
  development in young children?
• How can we assess young childrens
  social-emotional competence?

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Focus of the Discussion
The importance of social-emotional competence for
school readiness
Preschool Universal Preventive Programs The Safe
Spaces Program
Measures of Social-Emotional Competence
Preliminary Results of The CHILD Project
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Objectives

• WHAT is social emotional learning and social
  emotional competence?
• WHY is social emotional competence important?
• HOW can we foster childrens social and emotional
  competence?

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Take Home Messages

• The preschool years are a transitional point in
  development one in which there is an increased
  time of risk as well as an opportunity for
  intervention and prevention.
• There is an inextricable link between social
  emotional competence and school success this
  link becomes particularly salient during the
  transition to kindergarten.
• All research points to the importance of
  fostering young childrens social and emotional
  development.

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Guiding Principles

• Development of the whole child
• Importance of creating caring communities
• Relationships as central

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and . . .guided by research
Guiding Principles (contd)

• Rigorous science provides an essential
  foundation for effective policies and practices.

Developmental Psychology
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Major Goal of Developmental Psychology

• Finding early indicators of individual
  differences that facilitate or impede childrens
  present and future adaptation.
• Examining the way in which context interacts with
  individual characteristics to yield outcomes.

Urie Bronfenbrenner
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Urie Bronfenbrenners Contextual Perspective

• A childs unique development cannot be viewed
  without seeing the child in social and cultural
  context.
• It is important to recognize the multiple spheres
  of influence on childrens development.
• Everyday environments
• Families/Friends/Caregivers
• Social Institutions
• Schools/Neighborhoods/Communities
• Social Welfare Services
• Attitudes and ideologies of a culture

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Central Role of Relationships

• "Human beings of all ages are happiest and able
  to deploy their talents to best advantage when
  they experience trusted others as standing
  behind them."
• (p.25, Bowlby, 1973)

JOHN BOWLBY (1907-1990) Attachment Theory
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Shifting from a Risk to a Resiliency Focus

• Recent years have witnessed a shift from a focus
  on risk to identifying factors that protect
  individuals and foster positive development.

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Fostering Competence

• It is critical to the future of a society that
  its children become competent adults and
  productive citizens. Thus, society and parents
  are a stake in the development of competence and
  in understanding the processes that facilitate it
  and undermine it
• (Masten Coatsworth, 1998, p. 205)

Emotions
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• Making the Case for the Role of Emotions in Early
  Childhood Development

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What are the Dimensions of Emotional Development?
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Key Dimensions of Emotion Competence

• Three key dimensions of emotion management
  skills
• Emotion encoding and decoding
• Emotional understanding
• Emotional regulation

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Skills of Emotional CompetenceFunctionalist
Approach (Saarni, 1999)

• Awareness of ones emotions
• Ability to discern others emotions
• Ability to use a vocabulary of emotions
• Capacity for empathy and sympathy
• Ability to understand that ones emotional state
  may not be related to expression of emotions
• Emotion regulation
• Awareness that emotions are communicated in
  relationships
• Capacity for emotional self-efficacy

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What Does SEL Address?www.casel.org
Recognizing ones emotions and values as well as
ones strengths and limitations
Managing emotions and behaviors to achieve ones
goals
Making ethical, constructive choices about
personal and social behavior
Forming positive relationships, working in
teams, dealing effectively with conflict
Showing understanding and empathy for others
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Emotional Development in Early Childhood 2-5
years (Izard et al., 2002)

• Rapid and remarkable advances during this age
  period increases in emotion regulation, emotion
  vocabulary, feeling-thought connections.
• This age period represents a sensitive period
  for developing accurate perception of emotion in
  self and others.
• The latter part of the preschool years in
  particular may represent a sensitive period for
  emotion-induction techniques that foster the
  development of empathy, sympathy, and prosocial
  orientation.

Empathy
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Empathy The Critical Dimension

• Empathy, in particular, plays a critical role in
  helping individuals desist aggressive behaviors,
  and is one of the most desirable of personality
  traits because
• Not only does it provide a buffer against
  antisocial and aggressive behaviors,
• Empathy also is critical due to its positive
  association with prosocial behaviors (e.g.,
  sharing, helping, cooperating).

Emotions
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Emotions Matter
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Making the Case for Emotions

• Children who begin school without age-appropriate
  social and emotional competencies are at greater
  risk for school failure (Raver, 2002) .
• Children who are accepted by their peers or
  display prosocial behaviors tend to be high
  achievers, whereas children who are rejected and
  aggressive tend to be at risk for school failure
  (Dishion, 1990).
• Antisocial/aggressive behaviours are associated
  with both short-term and long-term adjustment
  problems, such as criminality, unemployment, and
  mental health problems (Broidy et al., 2003).

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Making the Case . . .

• A growing body of literature suggests that a
  deliberate and comprehensive approach to teaching
  children social and emotional skills can
• Raise their grades and test scores,
• Bolster their enthusiasm for learning,
• Reduce behavior problems,
• Enhance the brains cognitive functions
• (Education Week, 2003).

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Recent Research Findings . . .

• Social emotional literacy reduces violence and
  promotes prosocial behaviours (Schonert-Reichl,
  Smith, Zaidman-Zait, 2002 Weissberg
  Greenberg, 1998).
• Changes in academic achievement in Grade 8 could
  be better predicted from knowing childrens
  social competence 5 years earlier than from
  knowing grade 3 academic achievement (Caprara et
  al., 2000).
• Prosocial behaviours exhibited by students in the
  classroom were found to be better predictors of
  academic achievement than were their standardized
  test scores (Wentzel, 1993).

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The Relation to School Success

• "Children's understanding of their emotions,
  their ability to talk about them, and their
  ability to read the emotion signals of others
  provide them with some very valuable skills that
  not only affect their personal and social
  adjustment but their academic performance, as
  well."
• (Izard, 2005)

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Early Emotional Adjustment Predicts Early School
Success

• Children's emotional and social skills are linked
  to their early academic standing (Wentzel
  Asher, 1995)

• Casual Link Academic achievement during the
  first years of schooling appears to be built on a
  firm foundation of childrens emotional and
  social skills (Ladd, Kochendorfer, Coleman,
  1997)

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Early Emotional Adjustment Predicts Early School
Success

• Specifically, research on early schooling
  suggests that the relationships that children
  build with peers and teachers are based on

• Childrens ability to regulate emotions in
  prosocial vs antisocial ways.  

• Then, those relationships serve as a source of
  provisions that either help or hurt childrens
  chances of doing well academically.

Ladd, Birch Bubs, 1999
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Early Emotional Adjustment Predicts Early School
Success

• Children with emotional difficulties are likely
  to lose out academically, in a number of ways

• Disruptive children are tough to teach.
• Emotionally negative, angry children may lose
  opportunities to learn from their classmates.
• Children disliked by peers and teachers grow to
  like school less, feeling less love for learning,
  avoid school more often, with lower attendance.

Berndt Keefe, 1995 Birch Ladd, 1997 Murray
Greenberg, 2000
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Making the Case . . .

• While young childrens emotional problems are
  costly, results from interventions suggest that
  these problems are
• Identifiable early,
• Amenable to change, and
• Can be reduced over time.

Universal Prevention Programs
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Universal Prevention Programs

• It is important to consider universal and
  targeted prevention programming in the area of
  social and emotional development
• (Denham Weissberg, 2003).

• What can we do, as researchers and educators, to
  improve childrens social and emotional learning?
  

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A Few Recent Books

• Cohen, J. (Ed.) (2001). Caring Classrooms
  /Intelligent Schools The Social Emotional
  Education of Young Children. New York, NY
  Teacher's College Press.
• Elias, M.J., Arnold, H., Steiger C. (Eds.)
  (2002). EQ IQ Best Leadership Practices for
  Caring and Successful Schools. Corwin Press
  Thousand Oaks, CA.
• Zins, J., Weissberg, R., Wang, M., Walberg, H.
  J. (Eds.). (2004). Building Academic Success on
  Social and Emotional Learning What Does the
  Research Say? New York, NY Teachers College
  Press.

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Important Websites

• Collaborative for Academic and Social and
  Emotional Learning (CASEL)
• www.casel.org
• Centre for Social and Emotional Education
• www.csee.net
• Developmental Studies Center (Caring School
  Communities Project
• www.devstu.org
• Educators for Social Responsibility (ESR)
• http//www.esrnational.org/home.htm

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The Safe Spaces Program
From Theory to Practice Prevention Programs
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What is Safe Spaces?

• Universal primary preventive social emotional
  competence promotion program for preschool aged
  children.
• Focuses on fostering preschool-aged childrens
  emotional and social competence, promoting young
  children's helping, caring, and sharing
  behaviours, and on the other side, decreasing
  young children's aggressive and bullying
  behaviours.
• Modules Safe / not safe Friendly / not
  friendly Fair / not fair Emotions Problem
  Solving
• Four major concepts known as the Safe Spaces
  Rules (1)My body, (2) my feelings, (2)my work,
  and (4)my thoughts, ideas, and words are safe.

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What is Safe Spaces? (contd)

• Concepts are taught via stories, puppet play,
  photographs, art activities, and in childrens
  everyday social interactions (e.g., emotion
  coaching)
• Ecological Focus -- creation of a positive social
  milieu in the centre where all children, staff,
  families feel valued and a sense of belonging.
• Piloted in one centre in Vancouver in 2001.
  Currently being implemented in more than 70 child
  care centres across BC.

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Areas where Safe Spaces trainers are located
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Safe Spaces Centre RulesChildrens Circle Day
Care SocietyKamloops
To begin our Safe Spaces program we posted the
centre rules, the vocabulary, and the signing
vocabulary. We shared all of the information with
our parents. We took pictures of children being
friendly, showing their feelings, etc.
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Safe Spaces Baby Gallery Childrens Circle Day
Care SocietyKamloops
Our baby gallery consists of pictures of our
infants and their families. The children became
very involved as they would point at the
pictures. The parents also enjoyed the pictures
as they helped each parent become more familiar
with each other
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Circle Time and Puppets Childrens Circle Day
Care SocietyKamloops
Marta is our new friendwe introduced Marta and
talked about Marta being our friend. We sang a
song This is Marta, she is our new friend, she
has come to play with us today. How can we make
Marta feel welcome? The children shook hands
with her
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Safe / not Safe Childrens Circle Day Care
SocietyKamloops
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Friendly / not Friendly Childrens Circle Day
Care SocietyKamloops
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Friendly / not Friendly Childrens Circle Day
Care SocietyKamloops
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Hands Are Not Meant For Hitting Childrens
Circle Day Care SocietyKamloops
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Friendly JarChildrens Circle Day Care Society,
Kamloops
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The Safe Spaces ProgramVideo Clip
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The Safe Spaces ProgramResearch Study
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Evaluation Overview of The Safe Spaces Program

• Objective

• To evaluate both the short-term and long-term
  effectiveness of the Safe Spaces Program in
  promoting young childrens social, emotional, and
  behavioural competencies.

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Evaluation Overview of The Safe Spaces Program
(contd)

• Key Components of the Evaluation
• Link between theory and practice.
• Theoretical model Functionalist approach to
  emotions.
• Developmental evaluation methodology.
• Evaluation of a routine practice program
  (Wilson et al., 2003).
• Assessment of implementation promotion and
  integrity.
• Quasi-Experimental (pre-test, post-test, matched
  comparison).
• Longitudinal design.

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Research Activities to Date

• Phase One Implementation Evaluation
• Participants Staff at 5 child care centres in
  lower mainland implementing the Safe Spaces
  Program.
• Method Interviews, questionnaires (e.g., The
  Safe Spaces Implementation record log,
  Caregiver Buy-in, Caregivers Beliefs About
  Emotions).

• Some of the Findings Variability Across Child
  Care Centres, high levels of adherence and dosage
  to the Safe Spaces program, high quality of
  implemented activities, positive view of the
  Safe Spaces program, and reported the
  importance of leadership for program
  implementation

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Research Activities to Date (contd)

• Phase Two Outcome Evaluation
• Participants Children and staff across 8 centres
  (i.e., Safe Spaces centres and comparison
  centres)
• Method One on one interviews with children,
  questionnaires, etc.
• Measures Emotion knowledge, emotion
  understanding, moral sensibility, social
  competence (e.g., prosocial skills, bullying),
  program beliefs, etc.
• Longitudinal Design Following up children for 6
  and 12 months

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Research Activities to Date (contd)

• Research Supports
• Collaboration with Westcoast Child Care Resource
  Centre is essential.
• Cooperativeness across centres for doing research
• Research Challenges
• Cultural diversity (e.g., language issues).
• Transience of children in many of the centres.
• Variability of implementation across centres.

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The Safe Spaces Program Research Study Phase
Two Outcome Evaluation Measures of
Social-Emotional Competence
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The Safe Spaces Research StudyPhase Two
Outcome Evaluation
Study Measures
Teacher Report

• Child Self Report

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The Safe Spaces Research Study Teacher Report
Measures

• Child Behaviors with Peers Child Behavior Scale
  measures prosocial, antisocial/aggressive, and
  withdrawn behaviours with peers (Ladd Profilet,
  1996)
• Preschool Social Competence Preschool Competence
  Questionnaire (Olson, 1984)
• The Emotion Questionnaire (Rydell et al., 2003)
• Childrens Behaviour Questionnaire-CBQ
  Temperament (Rothbart, 1996)

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The Safe Spaces Research Study Child Self
Report Measures

• Test of Emotion Comprehension (Harris, Pons,
  Rosnay, 2003)
• Empathy (Bryant, 1986)
• The Dictator Game in Children-The Stickers Game
  (Harbaugh et al., 2003)
• Moral Beliefs Questionnaire (Dunn, Cutting,
  Demietriou, 2000 Slomkowski Killen, 1992)
• Emotion Expression Labelling (Denham, 1986)

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• Test of Emotion Comprehension
• (Harris, Pons, Rosnay, 2003)

• Examines childrens understanding of emotions by
  assessing individual childrens ability to
  understand nine different components of emotions
• Components Current Study
• Component I Recognition
• Component II External Causes

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Test of Emotion Comprehension (contd) (Harris,
Pons, Rosnay, 2003)
Component I Recognition
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Test of Emotion Comprehension (contd) (Harris,
Pons, Rosnay, 2003)
Component I External Causes
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Test of Emotion Comprehension (Harris, Pons,
Rosnay, 2003)Video Clip
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• Empathy
• (Bryant, 1986)

Yes or No
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Empathy (Bryant, 1986)Video Clip
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The Dictator Game in ChildrenThe Stickers Game
(Harbaugh et al., 2003)
X 10
X 2
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The Dictator Game in ChildrenThe Stickers Game
(Harbaugh et al., 2003)Video Clip
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• Moral Beliefs Questionnaire
• (Dunn, Cutting, Demietriou, 2000)

• Assesses young childrens conceptions of
  transgressions with friends and non-friends
• Topics
• Name calling
• Not allowing a child to play a game
• Taking a toy
• Breaking something

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• Moral Beliefs Questionnaire
• (Dunn, Cutting, Demietriou, 2000)

Iffriend.
Ifyou.
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Moral Beliefs Questionnaire(Dunn, Cutting,
Demietriou, 2000)Video Clip
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• Emotion Expression Labelling
• (Denham, 1986)

• There are two types of measures
• Expression identification Via verbal naming and
  nonverbal pointing.
• Interpretation of emotion situations The child
  is required to label the emotion of a protagonist
  in each of 18 different stories representing four
  basic emotions.

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Emotion Expression Labelling (contd) (Denham,
1986)
Expression identification Expression
Identification Knowledge
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Emotion Expression Labelling (contd) (Denham,
1986)
Expression identification Receptive Emotion
Knowledge
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Emotion Expression Labelling (contd) (Denham,
1986)
Interpretation of emotion situations
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Emotion Expression Labelling (Denham, 1986)Video
Clip
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The Safe Spaces Research Study Child Self
Report MeasuresDiscussion Stop Your Opinion

• Strengths and limitations of assessing young
  children
• Thought/ideas about working with these measures

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The Safe Spaces Research Study Child Self
Report Measures Discussion Stop My Experience
Childcare Centre

• Location
• Time

• Engaging Short
• Different Sessions
• Reliability and Validity

Measures
Reliability and Validity of the Data
Interviewer

• Experience
• Get to know the children

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The Safe Spaces Research Study Preliminary
Findings
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Test of Emotion Comprehension (Harris, Pons,
Rosnay, 2003)
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Empathy (Bryant, 1986)
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The Dictator Game in ChildrenThe Stickers Game
(Harbaugh et al., 2003)
Prosocial Behaviours Mean of Stickers Donated
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Conclusions

• It is critical to the future of our society that
  we identify the factors that assist children to
  become competent, caring adults and productive
  citizens.
• We all share a stake in the development of
  childrens emotional and social competence and in
  identifying the processes that facilitate or
  undermine it.
• The research supports the need for coordinated
  efforts that attend to the promotion of
  childrens positive academic and social-emotional
  development.

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Take Home Messages

• The preschool years are a transitional point in
  development one in which there is an increased
  time of risk as well as an opportunity for
  intervention and prevention.
• There is an inextricable link between social
  emotional competence and school success this
  link becomes particularly salient during the
  transition to kindergarten.
• All research points to the importance of
  fostering young childrens social and emotional
  development.

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Selected References

• Denham, S.A. (1998). Emotional Development in
  Young Children. New York The Guilford Press.
• Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence. New
  York Bantam Books.
• Saarni, C. (1999). The Development of Emotional
  Competence. New York The Guilford Press.
• Yun Dai, D. Sternberg, R.J. (2004). Motivation,
  Emotion, and Cognition Integrative Perspectives
  on Intellectual Functioning and Development.
  London Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
• Zins, J.E., Weissberg, R.P., Wang, M.C.,
  Walberg, H.J. (2004). Building Academic Success
  on Social and Emotional Learning What does the
  Research Say? New York Teachers College Press.
• Raver, C.C. (2002). Emotions matter Making the
  case for the role of young childrens emotional
  development for early school readiness. Social
  Policy Report, 16(3), 3-20.
• Hymel, S., Schonert-Reichl, K., Miller, L.D.
  (2006). Reading, riting, rithmetic and
  relationships Considering the social side of
  education. Exceptionality Education Canada,
  16(3), 149-192.
• Denham, S. A., Weissberg, R. P. (2004).
  Social-emotional learning in early childhood
  What we know and where to go from here. In E.
  Chesebrough, P. King, T. P. Gullotta, M. Bloom
  (Eds.), A blueprint for the promotion of
  prosocial behavior in early childhood (pp.
  13-50). New York Kluwer Academic/ Plenum
  Publishers.

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A Few Useful Websites

• www.casel.org Centre for Academic and Social and
  Emotional Learning
• http//www.goodcharacter.com/ (some good teaching
  guides)
• http//www.esrnational.org/ Educators for Social
  Responsibility
• http//www.uic.edu/orgs/ame/ Association for
  Moral Education
• http//www.casel.org/PromotingAcademicAchievement.
  pdf (a paper linking social - emotional learning
  to achievement)
• http//www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/character/charac
  ter-community-conf.pdf(papers presented at a
  conference on character and community presented
  at the Whitehouse in June, 2002)
• http//www.prevention.psu.edu/ (prevention
  programs and research)
• http//www.colorado.edu/cspv/blueprints/Default.ht
  m (Model programs)
• http//tigger.uic.edu/lnucci/MoralEd/ (Resources
  and research in moral education)

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Useful Websites (contd)

• Development Studies Center
• http//www.devstu.org/
• This center is dedicated to children's
  intellectual, ethical and social development.
  This site is a great resource for teachers. It
  outlines the centers school-based program as well
  as after school programs. Parents should check it
  out too. The center's website gives parents some
  direction in terms of their involvement in their
  children's development. It's a very comprehensive
  site.
• Studies in Moral Development and Education
• http//www.uicedu/Inucci/MoralEd/
• This provides a very in-depth look at moral
  development. There are links to the latest
  practices and activities in the area moral
  development. It highlights featured articles on
  issues of moral development and books of
  interest. You can also visit this site to see
  some of the classroom practices that are
  associated with moral development or join the
  mailing list. It's all here!
• Center for the Fourth and Fifth Rs Respect and
  Responsibility
• http//www.cortland.edu/www/c4n5rs/
• This center serves asa regional, state, and
  national resource in character education. A
  growing national movement, character education is
  essential to the task of building a moral society
  and developing schools which are civil and caring
  communities. THE CENTER disseminates articles on
  character education, sponsors an annual summer
  institute in character education, publishes a
  Fourth and Fifth Rs newsletter, and is building a
  network of "Fourth and Fifth Rs Schools"
  committed to teaching respect, responsibility and
  other core ethical virtues as the basis of good
  character.Character education holds that there
  are universally important ethical virtues such as
  respect, responsibility,trustworthiness,
  fairness, caring, courage, self-control, and
  diligence. Character means living by these core
  virtues -- understanding them, caring about them,
  and acting upon them.
• Lots and lots of links to related websites
• Roots of Empathy Primary Prevention Program
• http//www.rootsofempathy.org/
• This website provides detailed information about
  a classroom-based prevention program designed to
  foster empathy and prevent antisocial/aggressive
  in children in grades Kindergarten to grade 8.
• What is Roots of Empathy?
• It's a rich, vital, and highly rewarding
  classroom parenting Roots of Empathy that
  teaches human development and nurtures the growth
  of empathy. A baby and parent(s) visit a
  classroom once a month for a 10-month period. A
  Roots of Empathy instructor works with students
  before, during, and after each visit. Students'
  learn about parenting, about themselves, about
  how others feel, and teachers almost always learn
  something new about their students. All the
  learnings springboard from visits with the baby.
• The Search Institute
• http//www.search-institute.org/
• (From the description on the web)Search Institute
  is an independent, nonprofit, nonsectarian
  organization whose mission is to advance the
  well-being of adolescents and children by
  generating knowledge and promoting its
  application. Search Institute conducts research
  and evaluation, develops publications and
  practical tools, and provides training and
  technical assistance. The institute collaborates
  with others to promote long-term organizational,
  and cultural change that supports the healthy
  development of all children and adolescents.

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Contact Information

• Safe Spaces Program
• Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre
  http//www.wstcoast.org/
• Safe Spaces Research Study
• University of British Columbia
• Kim Schonert-Reichl, PhD
• kimberly.schonert-reichl_at_ubc.ca
• Angela M. Jaramillo, MA
• angelaj_at_interchange.ubc.ca

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Thank you!