Article

Caring about caring: What adults can do to promote young children's prosocial skills

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

... Prosocial characteristics that can develop well if stimulation from the closest people is done well and correctly. There are prosocial behaviors possessed by individuals that are already predisposing but can also be obtained by explicitly teaching children to behave in prosocial behavior, such as establishing safe and comfortable relationships, communication, modeling and support (Hyson & Taylor, 2011). Prosocial characteristics that can develop well if stimulation from the closest person is done well and correctly. ...
... Prosocial characteristics that can develop well if stimulation from the closest person is done well and correctly. There are prosocial behaviors possessed by individuals that are already predisposing but can also be obtained by explicitly teaching children to behave in prosocial behavior, such as establishing safe and comfortable relationships, communication, modeling and support (Hyson & Taylor, 2011). Prosocial characteristics that can develop well if stimulation from the closest person is done well and correctly. ...
... Prosocial characteristics that can develop well if stimulation from the closest person is done well and correctly. There are prosocial behaviors possessed by individuals that are already predisposing but can also be obtained by explicitly teaching children to behave in prosocial behavior, such as establishing safe and comfortable relationships, communication, modeling and support (Hyson & Taylor, 2011). ...
Article
Full-text available
This research is motivated by the low participation of parents in the development of children's prosocial activities in the arena of public facilities, which results in poor prosocial abilities of children. This can be seen from the behavior of early childhood who like to monopolize the game, not patiently waiting for their turn, likes to hit friends, and does not like friends, do not want to share and so forth. The purpose of this study was to describe the factual conditions of child prosocial development due to public play by the family so far. P.The approach used is qualitative with the type of case. The setting of this study was carried out in Singgalang Padang complex, while the research subjects were parents who brought their young children to play in public play facilities. Researchers were key instruments, and data collection techniques used participatory observation, in-depth interviews. Data analysis techniques using qualitative analysis. The results showed that parents had not participated in the social development of children in the public play arena. There are several reasons for parents why they do not carry out the prosocial development of their children, among them they argue that: (1) it is not yet time, the social development of children is done, because they are still too small. (2). Even if directed they don't understand, (3) there are parents who think that they don't know that social development needs to be done since the child is still small (4) There are parents who don't want to know about the situation and they are more focused on children themselves. Suggestions in this study need to provide information to parents or caregivers about children's social development early on in the public play arena.
... Much of young children's character strength and prosocial competency development depends on the quality of the teacher-child relationship, which can encourage or discourage related traits and skills (Hyson and Taylor 2011;Shonkoff and Phillips 2000;Pianta 1997). Preschool-age children's character strength development (e.g. ...
... Improved relationships between preschool teachers and children also facilitate school readiness with increased academic, language, and social competencies among 4-year olds (Howes et al. 1998;Mashburn et al. 2008). Thus, it is important for early childhood educators to build secure relationships with children, create a caring classroom community, model prosocial behavior, and focus on children's strengths because children learn the act of care in a caring environment (Beaty 1999;Flynn and Schachter 2017;Hyson and Taylor 2011;Priest 2007). ...
... There is less research investigating positive psychology interventions with young children compared to adolescents (Mashford-Scott et al. 2012;Shoshani and Slone 2017). Many studies related to young children's character strength development have focused on parent-child relationships rather than teacher-child relationships (Hyson and Taylor 2011). Nevertheless, researchers are increasingly examining how to foster character strengths and prosocial competencies among young children in educational settings. ...
Article
Full-text available
Character strengths such as love, kindness and forgiveness promote emotional health, positive relationships and enhanced well-being for children and adults. Yet little research has investigated how early childhood educators practice love, kindness and forgiveness at work, or how they observe these virtues in children. A strength-spotting intervention was adapted from positive psychology to collect 216 written examples of teacher and child love, kindness and forgiveness from 16 early childhood educators while they attended professional development in a large northeastern city in the United States. Behaviors associated with these character strengths were then coded using content and thematic analysis. Teacher and child love were most frequently associated with empathy and spontaneous affection. Teacher and child kindness were frequently associated with helpfulness and friendship. Teacher and child forgiveness were characterized by giving someone another chance, letting go, responding with kindness and speaking positively. Empathy, generosity, helpfulness and courtesy emerged as interrelated expressions of love, kindness and forgiveness. These traits are discussed in relation to goals of social-emotional learning, such as promoting secure attachment relationships.
... A recent study by Schmerse and Hepach (2021) found that both parent and teacher socialization goals, but also the social climate among peers in the classroom group, predicts young children's concern for others and their subsequent acts of help between the ages of two and four: children who received good quality of care in both the family and daycare environments and who experienced a pleasant climate of peer interaction exhibited more prosocial behavior than children who grew up early only in the family context. These findings are consistent with those from previous studies that showed good daycare experience can promote prosociality (Hyson and Taylor, 2011;Grazzani et al., 2016;Quigley and Hall, 2016;McCormick, 2018). In contrast, Bleiker et al. (2019) highlighted that prosocial behavior of children aged 18-24 months who attended daycare did not differ from that of family-raised peers; furthermore, a study by Pingault et al. (2015) showed that, at age six, children with daycare experience were more sociable but equally prosocial than others. ...
... To summarize the results, no differences were found between the two groups of children examined concerning the productivity of prosocial behaviors; however, some differences emerged in the quality of enacted behaviors that appeared to be associated with certain social-emotional and behavioral characteristics. Indeed, the daycare experience requires children to create new relationships outside the family very early on, and this means to engage in interactions with peers, to adapt to teachers' expectations and demands, and to test and modify their socialemotional abilities by experience (Hyson and Taylor, 2011;Grazzani et al., 2016). As some studies have shown, while attending daycare children are frequently exposed to prosocial behaviors and, consequently, they are prone to enact such behaviors themselves for two main reasons: one refers to social imitation processing, the other to the evidence that through the care that the young children receive, they learn to care for others (Quigley and Hall, 2016;McCormick, 2018;Bleiker et al., 2019;Schmerse and Hepach, 2021). ...
Article
Full-text available
Over the last decades, many studies had focused on the psychological outcomes of children who have received early socialization outside of the family context, highlighting that the daycare experience can both positively and negatively influence the child’s social-emotional development. Despite the number of studies conducted, there is a lack of observational research on this topic. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the early daycare experience can influence the prosocial behaviors that children exhibit during free-play social interactions with peers, focusing on their quantity and quality. In addition, the associations between the enactment of prosocial behaviors and social-emotional and behavioral competence were investigated. 160 preschoolers, 77 of whom had previously attended daycare, participated in the study and were focally observed during two free play sessions with peers. Each prosocial behavior was identified and subsequently classified using a coding scheme designed to consider the self-initiated or required origin of prosocial actions and their underlying motive. Emotion comprehension was measured using a standardized test, while social-emotional and behavioral competence was assessed using a questionnaire filled out by teachers. The main findings showed that children who had attended daycare had higher anger and aggression scores than those who had not, who, in turn, were rated by their teachers as having more internalizing behaviors. These characteristics seemed to account for the differences found in the tendency to act prosocial acts in response to a peer’s request, which was lower in children who had a previous daycare experience. Moreover, early socialization outside of the family context appeared to foster the comprehension of others’ intent to achieve emotional or instrumental personal goals and, at the same time, to reduce conventional/affiliative prosocial acts. Overall, this study suggested that the incidental effects of daycare on prosocial behavior might be canceled due to the peculiar social-emotional and behavioral characteristics of the two groups of children.
... In order for such programmes to flourish teachers and the rest of the staff can revisit their school policies and curricula to make them more affective. According to Hyson and Taylor [15] teachers can reexamine everyday routines and activities to see if the pro-social content of activities is being fully tapped. Moreover, teachers can use specialized curricula and other resources that target pro-social behaviour. ...
... Her manner was impolite. Hyson and Taylor [15] stated that if adults were warm, nurturing and responsive, children were likely to notice and imitate aspects of their behaviour, including pro-social actions. Teachers who had those characteristics had a good chance of promoting children's empathy, helpful, caring, generous behaviour by demonstrating that behaviour themselves. ...
... Through the care they receive, they learn to care for themselves, others, and our world (Quigley and Hall, 2016). As they engage in care-giving and care-receiving, children develop prosocial skills such as empathy, compassion, sharing, and helpfulness (Denham and Brown, 2010;Hyson and Taylor, 2011) as well as skills connected to enhanced academic readiness (Bierman et al., 2009). Care is a significant component of children's everyday lives; yet, their subjective perceptions of the care they receive and their own expressions and enactments of care as competent members of the caregiving community are overlooked in Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) scholarship. ...
... Connectedness and attentiveness. ECCE settings are sites for children to practice care and participate in supportive caring communities (Hyson and Taylor, 2011). Feeling connected to other caring individuals in ECCE settings helps children develop secure relationships within the classroom community (Chin, 2014;Shonkoff and Phillips, 2000). ...
Article
Full-text available
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 expressed, enacted, and then subsequently described and explained their experiences of care in one preschool classroom in the Midwestern United States. Data were captured using the Mosaic approach and included observations, photographs, videos, child conferences, and book-making. Analysis of the data revealed that children constructed care in five ways: to minimize the discomfort or pain of others, support relationships, promote positive emotion, enhance healthy and safe habits, and ensure the longevity and sustainability of their shared resources. Interpretations and implications of the mosaic of care generated in the site are discussed.
... Caring has been described as providing the necessary scaffolds [7,8], helping and expecting all students to reach their potential [9], or empathic listening [10][11][12][13]. Pang [14] views caring as a conscious and ethical responsibility that supports relationship building with students. ...
... One of the teachers mentioned "I generally kneel by the students' desk and I pay attention. " This behavior reflects the bond between teacher and student rather than a display of power by an authority figure, in concert with other researches [12,38]. ...
Article
Full-text available
In this exploratory qualitative study we examined teachers’ perceptions of teacher behaviors that convey caring in upper elementary and middle school classrooms. Data collection included teacher interview, classroom observations, and teacher self-reflection. Major findings include specific caring behaviors perceived by teachers that are identified and described in four themes: (a) fostering a sense of belonging, (b) getting to know students personally, (c) supporting academic success, and (d) attending to physiological needs. Our findings contribute to a body of research on caring by including teachers’ voices and illuminating an authentic approach in caring for students. Our description of caring behaviors and patterns of interactions demonstrate caring in ways that may not be congruent with the norm. Thus, our findings may provide new insight for educators to examine their personal ideology.
... Attending childcare outside the home allows many children to benefit from a variety of socialisation experiences quite early on and in a fairly intensive way (Howes, 2011), at a pivotal moment in their lives, that is, just before starting school. Educational childcare settings, particularly for children aged 4, offer numerous and diversified opportunities to develop close relationships with others (Bouchard, Coutu, & Landry, 2012;Coplan & Arbeau, 2009;Hyson & Taylor, 2011;Rubin, Bukowski, & Parker, 2006). Based on their knowledge of the social world, children gradually build a repertoire of behaviours they can experiment with on a daily basis while interacting with their peers and the adults around them. ...
... By extension, this underscores the importance of the support provided by ECEs in terms of fostering greater diversity in the prosocial interpersonal problem-solving strategies used by children (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009;Honig, 1996;Hyson & Taylor, 2011;Katz & McClellan, 1997), in particular through scaffolding. Indeed, although children are able to verbally provide suitable solutions to hypothetical situations involving conflict, it can nevertheless be more difficult for them to put these solutions into action in natural settings. ...
... Studies show that even at 2 years of age, children can display helping behaviors, and by 2.5 years, children can exhibit aggressive tendencies (Chopra et al., 2012). Previous studies also illustrate the importance of parents in their children's prosocial development, as sensitive parenting practices are associated with the development of empathy in early childhood (Becher et al., 2023;Newton et al., 2016), and childhood observation of caregivers engaging in prosocial behaviors is associated with improved prosocial development (Honig & Wittmer, 1991;Hyson & Taylor, 2011;Schuhmacher et al., 2019). Providing young people with the capacity to develop empathy during ECD is, in turn, associated with an increased expression of prosocial behavior throughout their lives (Glen et al., 2020). ...
Article
Full-text available
Despite the connection between early childhood development (ECD) and later behavioral outcomes, peacebuilding frameworks have only recently begun to explore pathways through which ECD programs promote peace in community contexts. Recent literature theorizes that ECD interventions may spill over from family to community interactions, which is particularly important in areas affected by conflict. The current case study explored qualitative outcomes associated with peacebuilding behaviors across a randomized controlled trial of Parents Make the Difference, a parenting program in postconflict Liberia. Parents or primary caregivers of children aged 3–5 years (N = 813) attended 10 weekly sessions, with 75 completing follow-up interviews. Participants described engaging in prosocial behaviors in the context of their community following program completion, such as decreased personal conflict and empowerment to mediate conflict between peers. Findings highlight improved community relationships in promoting peace among adults and modeling these behaviors for children during a critical period of development.
... In relation to the formation of prosocial behavior, the family becomes the first social forum for children to receive teaching and education on prosocial behavior [13]. Parents play a role by paying attention, guiding, supervising, educating, and nurturing as a form of example in the formation of prosocial behavior. ...
Article
Full-text available
The aim of this research is to address the issue of low prosocial behavior in children, both at home and in public spaces. This was identified through observations and interviews with parents, who believe that the lack of their participation in their children’s prosocial development is due to their limited understanding. To improve early childhood prosocial behavior, the research team developed an Android-based E-Module that is practical and user-friendly, as well as accessible to a wider audience. This type of research is referred to as development research. The study’s objective is to design an Android-based E-Module application that can improve early childhood prosocial behavior within families. The ADDIE Model development method was utilized, with a survey conducted to assess the application’s validity, which was further validated by multiple experts. The results showed that the Android-based E-Module application’s validation test was deemed valid, and can be concluded that it is a useful tool to enhance early childhood prosocial behavior within families, specifically in the city of Padang.
... According to Social Learning Theory ( Bandura, 1979 ), children learn by observing the behaviors of others in their environment, suggesting that early childhood educators play a critical role in creating a healthy social and emotional classroom climate ( Howes, 2000 ;Reyes et al., 2012 ). This often involves early childhood teachers being emotionally available and engaging with children in a warm, sensitive, and responsive manner ( Hyson & Taylor, 2011 ;Jennings, 2015 ;Mortensen & Barnett, 2015 ). Children's experiences in these settings are enhanced when early childhood teach-✩ The writing of this manuscript was supported in part by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. DGE-1540502 awarded to K.J. Stone. ...
Article
Children’s social-emotional and cognitive development is enhanced when early childhood educators display positive affect and respond appropriately to children’s needs. However, there is little research on factors that influence teachers’ positive affect in the classroom, such as past adversity exposure and promoting teachers’ well-being. The current study examined the interactive effect of teacher participation in a well-being program (Be Well Care Well; BWCW) and their exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on changes in observed teacher affect over time within the classroom setting. Participants included 95 early childhood teachers who completed the ACEs measure, a live classroom observation before participation in activities, and a post-intervention observation. Multilevel modeling estimated the interactive effects of teacher ACEs, participation in BWCW activities, and time on the dependent variable (i.e., teacher affect). Results from the three-level random intercept model showed a significant three-way interaction. Individuals with a higher number of ACEs and lower participation in the well-being program showed a decrease in positive affect over time. This effect was not significant for teachers who reported fewer ACEs. Results indicate that the degree of participation in the well-being program was particularly salient for teachers with higher exposure to past ACEs. Findings suggest that fostering teachers’ physical health and well-being can enhance their affect and enthusiasm in the classroom setting, particularly for those with higher levels of past adversity exposure.
... Finally, being voluntary is an important aspect of character strengths and prosocial competencies (Eisenberg, Fabes, and Spinrad 2006). When children are compelled to be kind, for example, we do not know if they have internally developed this character strength or its related prosocial competencies (Hyson and Taylor 2011). ...
... Finally, being voluntary is an important aspect of character strengths and prosocial competencies (Eisenberg, Fabes, and Spinrad 2006). When children are compelled to be kind, for example, we do not know if they have internally developed this character strength or its related prosocial competencies (Hyson and Taylor 2011). ...
Article
Full-text available
Positive psychology interventions, such as the application of character strengths, can improve job performance and satisfaction across industries, but little of this research has been applied to the early childhood education profession. A qualitative study of in-service early childhood educators (n = 17) completing a character strength application training during professional development was completed in a large city in the northeastern United States. Participants explored the application of character strengths to workplace challenges by referring to the Values in Action classification of strengths. This study analyzed the challenges that educators reported (e.g. children needing to learn social emotional skills; coworkers not completing responsibilities), the difficulty level of those challenges, and the character strengths applied to address them. Workplace challenges followed a normal distribution across low, moderate and high difficulty levels. Children's behavioral needs were the most prevalent type of workplace challenge reported, followed by challenges working with coworkers. Early childhood educators most frequently used kindness, leadership, fairness, hope, love, self-regulation, perseverance, forgiveness and humility to address workplace challenges related to working with children, coworkers, parents and themselves. These strengths appear to be appropriate targets for future professional development seeking to improve teacher well-being in early childhood settings and to prepare teachers to model character strengths for children.
... The warmth, support, and positive emotions displayed by parents while interacting with children provide opportunities for learning for children to interact with others (Pastorelli et al., 2016). The family is the first social place for children to get social and prosocial education (Hyson & Taylor, 2011). Children tend to imitate what their parents do and these characteristics will settle on the child (Warneken & Tomasello, 2009). ...
Article
Full-text available
This research was to describe the educational contribution in family and about being active while participating extracurricular on prosocial behavior of students in SMK Negeri 6 Padang. This research applied descriptive quantitative method. The population was 903 students in X and XI grade at SMK Negeri 6 Padang and 278 students as the sample were selected using proportional random sampling techniques. The instruments used was questionnaire. The data were analyzed with regression statistics, simple and double regressions. The data analysis was assisted using the SPSS 20.0 program. The study showed that: (1) the average of prosocial behavior was in the high category, (2) education in family was in the high category, there were 28% contribution of education in family to prosocial behavior, (3) the activity in participating extracurricular was in the high category, there were 16.2% contributions of activeness to participate in participative extracurricular on students’ prosocial behavior, (4) there were 31.5% contributions of both educational contribution in family and participative extracurricular on students’ prosocial behavior.
... They include such activities as helping, co-operating, rescuing, defending, sharing, donating, volunteering, comforting, sympathy, kindness, giving, showing concern, and taking another person's perspective among others (Preusse, 2008;Kostelnik, et. al., 2011;Hyson and Taylor, 2011). According to Kostelnik et. ...
Article
Full-text available
Despite the attempts that have been made to promote justice and tranquility by international communities, and organisations as well as Nigerian government at national, state and local levels, evidence abound that the world and especially the Nigerian society still face various social problems like conflict, war, terrorism, declining work ethics, diminished civic responsibility, dishonesty and growing disrespect for elders among others. To overcome these problems, societies need to consciously inculcate the skills for promoting social ethics, early in young children. It is based on this premise that this paper argues that early childhood period is most effective and vital in inculcating skills for upholding social ethics in order to promote justice and peace in the Nigerian society. The paper discusses what social ethics means in early childhood, it discusses the process of inculcating the skills in early childhood classrooms and presents the implications such skills have for social and moral development of the Nigerian society.
... The specific behaviors and actions that display character strengths for young children in school settings may look different from adult behavior. Prosocial skills in young children as observed in school settings include helping others, taking turns and sharing toys, compromising, playing well with others, sharing feelings verbally, completing chores and requests from teachers, and comforting other children who are upset (Lottman et al. 2017;Mei-Ju et al. 2014;Hyson and Taylor 2011;Ramaswamy and Bergin 2009;Honig 2004;Beaty 1999). From this description, character strengths are manifested in the form of many social-emotional skills. ...
Article
Full-text available
Character strengths improve performance and well-being but are rarely studied among early childhood educators. This qualitative study describes how in-service early childhood educators (n = 17, United States) resolved workplace challenges following a character strength application intervention. During professional development, teachers learned to write action plans to use character strengths (e.g., perseverance, kindness) to address their challenges. Teachers reported a 71% success rate in fully or mostly resolving challenges using this method. Another 22% experienced partial success. This study documents how teachers matched character strengths to personal challenges with children, coworkers and parents. Teachers reported using certain strengths mostly with children (e.g., love, forgiveness), others mostly with adults (e.g., teamwork, bravery), and others universally (e.g., kindness, leadership). Teachers reported modeling or teaching character strengths to children in 31% of cases in which they were seeking to resolve some form of workplace challenge. Teachers perceived that the intervention made it more likely for them to model or teach character strengths to children, particularly kindness, forgiveness, social intelligence and teamwork. Educators and children are likely to benefit from professional development that explores the application of character strengths in the workplace.
... There is a link between prosocial qualities and academic success in children (Hyson & Taylor, 2011). The relationship between curiosity and caring and student success provides justification for teaching both of the constructs across the curriculum. ...
Article
Full-text available
Caring and curiosity are fundamental to learning and working well with others. Individuals who are both caring andcurious have empathetic curiosity and want to know about other people and take the initiative to learn aboutperspectives, needs, and goals of those around them. Empathetic curiosity can be enhanced through activities inschools. The goal of our project was to determine teachers’ perceptions and practices associated with teaching andlearning caring and curiosity. The data we collected from 183 K-12 teachers revealed positive perceptions ofteaching caring and curiosity. We found that the instructional methods used to teach caring shifted with the curricularcontent. Our research also revealed that the focus of curiosity changed when the teaching concentrated on contentrather than the instruction method. The teachers relatively limited focus on caring for others when teaching caringsuggests that they may not be considering empathetic curiosity as a learning goal. Based on our findings we interpretour results and provide implications for teaching and learning.
... We know from research that young children demonstrate prosocial behaviour such as compassion and empathy in many preschools. In high-quality preschool programmes, this includes actions such as sharing toys, negotiating disagreements peacefully, comforting others in distress, giving others a chance to play, giving and receiving compliments graciously, warning others of danger and seeking adult assistance if another child is in trouble (Hyson & Taylor, 2011). The children are able to understand others' thoughts and feelings, regulate their own behaviour and learn socially acceptable ways for dealing with emotions (Pizzolongo & Hunter, 2011). ...
Chapter
Full-text available
In 2012, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) proposed an assessment for early learning outcomes known as the International Early Learning and Child Well-Being Study (IELS). The assessment, dubbed ‘baby PISA,’ will explore the learning and well-being of five-year-olds. Worryingly, early childhood educators, researchers and scholars were given little consultation about the project and fear the potential problems if ‘baby PISA’ takes hold across the world. Scholars have argued that the standardisation of early childhood would lead to more academic drills, tests and the loss of child choice, hands-on activities, less play and developmentally meaningful learning. And also a fear that it will change the nature of early childhood education as we currently know it. This chapter will explore the current debates about baby PISA, contrasting it with some of the critique directed towards PISA assessment for 15-year-olds. The perspective of teacher in the form of personal narratives will provide new realities for understanding the contextual and cultural contexts. Teacher voices are yet to be clearly heard within the baby PISA debate. As authors, we write from a Swedish perspective. The chapter will conclude with alternative ways of supporting children’s well-being, advocating the need for supporting all children in meaningful ways. This includes practices that are cultural and contextually specific to support the diversity and individual needs of all children.
... However, they transmit values to children in many ways, not least by being role models for children (Sigurdardóttir & Einarsdóttir, 2016). Teachers model values by their behavior, both non-verbally and verbally, and even very young children are subtle observers of the behavior of teachers, and also imitate their teachers (Hyson & Taylor, 2011), as was evident in this study. ...
Chapter
Full-text (AOM) available privately on request. Hännikäinen, M. (2018). Values of well-being and togetherness in the early childhood education of younger children. In E. Johansson, & J. Einarsdottir (Eds.), Values in Early Childhood Education: Citizenship for Tomorrow (pp. 147-162). London: Routledge. Abstract The chapter illustrates the younger children’s expressions of the values of well-being and togetherness in day-care groups and the educators’ role in communicating these values. The values of well-being and togetherness were closely interconnected. The children expressed these values by bodily gestures, laughter and enthusiasm in their activities and by mutual interest, physical closeness, and playing together. The educators communicated the values by a caring attitude and emotional warmth. They were present to the children and assured that the atmosphere was supportive and joyful. The educators encouraged the children to engage in shared endeavors and, above all, played with them.
... Preschool teachers' strong desire for affectionate, loving practices and learning environments match pleas from early childhood scholars (Hyson & Taylor, 2011;Goldstein, 2002) and professional organizations (NAEYC, 2009) for teachers to be gentle, kind, positive and affectionate so that young children feel comfortable and safe beginning school. On the surface, the teachers' ideas about welcoming young children of immigrants seemed united and professionally aligned. ...
Article
Full-text available
Young children of immigrants are increasingly part of early childhood programs in the United States but teachers have mixed approaches and attitudes about the immigrant families that they work with. This article details an analysis of 50 preschool teachers in five US cities using data from the Children Crossing Borders video-cued ethnographic study. The analysis finds that preschool sites that valued the insight of immigrant teachers had more positive views of immigrant communities and stronger mechanisms to communicate with immigrant parents. The article ultimately argues that policies that support the presence and meaningful input of immigrant preschool teachers can help preschool sites be positive, rather than negative or indifferent, contexts of reception.
... (Suseno, 1996). Berdasarakan beberapa penelitian ditemukan bahwa faktor internal yang mempengaruhi prososial adalah kepribadian (Baron & Byrne, 2005;Taylor, dkk., 2006), empati (Bar & D'Alessandro, 2007), religiusitas (Sarglou, dkk., 2005), emosi dan pengalaman (Baron & Byrne, 2005), sedangkan faktor ekternal yang berpengaruh adalah situasi (Baron & Byrne, 2005), kebudayaan (Hyson & Taylor, 2011;Trommsdorff, dkk., 2007), keluarga (Bar & D'Alessandro, 2007), praktek pengasuhan (Carlo, dkk., 2007), gaya pengasuhan (Hasting dkk., 2007), teman (Mau, dkk., 2007), guru (Wentzel, dkk., 2007), kondisi sosial ekonomi (Piff, dkk., 2010) dan media elektronik (televisi, HP, permainan) (Greitmeyer, 2008;Abraham, dkk., 2009;Gentile, dkk., 2009). ...
... Prosocial behavior, kindness, generosity, and cooperation are in many ways the glue that holds the social fabric together. Therefore, the fact that managers, educators, institutions, and religions encourage prosocial behaviors is unsurprising (e.g., Brief and Motowidlo, 1986;Kidron and Fleischman, 2006;Hyson and Taylor, 2011). As such, selfdisclosure, a ritual rooted in most main religions and cultures, should not negatively influence prosocial behaviors that smooth our social interactions. ...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper, we suggest people use anonymous online forums as platforms for self-disclosing actions they feel guilty about—such as transgressions and unethical behaviors—with the goal of achieving guilt relief through others’ reactions. We support this proposition by analyzing field data extracted from Yahoo Answers, an online question-and-answer website. Our analysis shows the level of guilt relief an answer is expected to offer the “asker” (the self-disclosing person) is positively associated with the asker’s likelihood of selecting that answer as the “best” response to the self-disclosure. Furthermore, following receipt of a guilt-relieving answer, an asker becomes less likely to engage in prosocial behavior, which is another type of guilt-relieving action.
... En effet, il semble peu fréquent que les enseignantes renforcent (Eisenberg et al., 1981) ou promeuvent (Caplan et Hay, 1989) les comportements prosociaux de leurs élèves, ce qui peut par le fait même exercer un effet sur la prévention de la violence à l'école. Une avenue intéressante de recherche pourrait ainsi consister en la mise en place d'une démarche d'accompagnement des éducatrices et des enseignantes visant à soutenir la prosocialité des enfants, comme Hyson et Taylor (2011) le recommandent aux États-Unis par exemple. Un tel projet s'inscrirait dans l'ensemble des moyens permettant de prévenir la violence à l'école. ...
Article
Full-text available
Cette étude compare la prosocialité des enfants âgés de 5 et 6 ans selon leur genre ainsi que le contexte éducatif fréquenté, et ce, à partir de trois sources et méthodes d’évaluation : 1) la prosocialité perçue par l’adulte; 2) la prosocialité exprimée par l’enfant en situations hypothétiques; et 3) la prosocialité observée lors d’interactions sociales entre pairs. Les résultats démontrent que les filles sont perçues par leurs éducatrices ou leurs enseignantes comme étant plus prosociales que les garçons, mais ils ne révèlent pas d’effet significatif de genre en ce qui concerne la prosocialité exprimée et la prosocialité observée. Les enfants en maternelle affichent des scores plus élevés à la prosocialité exprimée que ceux en centre de la petite enfance (CPE), alors que c’est l’inverse en prosocialité observée. Ces résultats sont discutés au regard de leur implication dans la prévention de la violence en contextes éducatifs.
... This finding of the current study can be supported by Hyson and Taylor's suggestions. Hyson and Taylor (2011) asserted that early childhood educators want to help children become empathic and starting early is crucial, because early prosocial tendencies often proceed into later years. ...
Article
Full-text available
The goal of the present study was to investigate preschool teachers' emotion socialization responses to Turkish preschoolers' emotional expressions based on children's age and gender. The participants in the current study were 12 preschool full time teachers from 4 preschool and 288 preschoolers ranging in age from 4 to 6 years in Aksaray. In order to perform naturalistic observation a coding system was created by researcher based on previous studies. The results indicated that preschool teachers were more likely encouraged children to show empathy to others, teached positive emotions, encouraged expressing positive emotions, matched positive emotions, responded psyhical affection in 4 year old age children more than 5 and 6 year old age children. Preschool teachers were more often minimized negative responses, distracted, labeled negative emotion in 4 year old age children than 5 and 6 year old children. Results also revealed that there was a significant but low relationship between children's gender and teacher's responses to negative emotional expressions and a modest relationship between children's gender and teacher's responses to positive emotional expressions.
... Preschool teachers' strong desire for affectionate, loving practices and learning environments match pleas from early childhood scholars (Hyson & Taylor, 2011;Goldstein, 2002) and professional organizations (NAEYC, 2009) for teachers to be gentle, kind, positive and affectionate so that young children feel comfortable and safe beginning school. On the surface, the teachers' ideas about welcoming young children of immigrants seemed united and professionally aligned. ...
Article
Full-text available
Young children of immigrants are increasingly part of early childhood programs in the United States but teachers have mixed approaches and attitudes about the immigrant families that they work with. This article details an analysis of 50 preschool teachers in five US cities using data from the Children Crossing Borders video-cued ethnographic study. The analysis finds that preschool sites that valued the insight of immigrant teachers had more positive views of immigrant communities and stronger mechanisms to communicate with immigrant parents. The article ultimately argues that policies that support the presence and meaningful input of immigrant preschool teachers can help preschool sites be positive, rather than negative or indifferent, contexts of reception. © 2016, Education Policy Analysis Archives. All right reserved.
... The "Persona Doll" project focused on a large group of boys who were denied participation with their classmates. Empathy skills should be modeled and discussed with pre-kindergarten children to help them acquire these necessary skills (Hyson & Taylor, 2011). Young children naturally focus on themselves and require effective modeling by teachers and significant adults to learn empathy and perspective-taking. ...
Article
While the global community has made some progress in eradicating poverty and getting more children into school since the launch of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, every day we learn of new conflicts, crises, and attacks on human rights. In a year that has seen the largest refugee migration in generations, the importance of building peaceful, sustainable societies that respect the rights of all people is clear. One of the best ways to build brighter futures is to focus on the education, development, and well-being of children. Even young children can build the empathy, understanding, and emotional literacy that will help them to live peacefully and make positive contributions to their communities and to the world. Quality educational experiences that help children develop an understanding of their rights and the rights of others can make them advocates for caring and compassion.
... A variety of techniques were suggested to promote children's pro-social development (Dunlap & Powell, 2009;Honig, 1999Honig, , 2004Honig & Wittmer, 1991;Hyson & Taylor, 2011) that teachers could use during their daily English language arts lessons. The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) (n.d.) offers numerous resources and strategies to promote children's prosocial development, including teaching social emotional skills, tools for working on building relations, scripted stories for social situations, and a book list six pages in length, to name a few. ...
Article
Play is one of the essential components in proper development of first-grade students. Since the adoption by various states of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), two outcomes have developed: (a) increased instructional time and (b) decreased public school recess periods across school districts. Given the complex nature of daily instructional practices and the lack of opportunity to engage in play (i.e. which in turn decrease the chances for first graders to interact and improve their pro-social skills), classroom teachers need to begin to model and incorporate bibliotherapy as a means to enhance pro-social interactions during daily language art lessons. The purpose of this article is to introduce first-grade teachers to a four-step guide for incorporating bibliotherapy with the 'Key Ideas and Details' strand of the CCSS on reading informational text while teaching the needed pro-social skills for first-grade students.
... The safe and warm atmosphere created in such situations in turn encouraged the children to express their attachment and tenderness towards each other as well as to the teacher (cf. Ahnert et al., 2006;Hyson & Taylor, 2011). Hence, on occasions like this, we could speak of learning through intent participation and imitation (Rogoff, 2003). ...
Article
Full-text available
This study focuses on a particular relationship between teachers and one- to three-year-old children: the child in the teacher's lap. When, in what situations, does this happen? Who are the children in the teacher's lap? Why are they there? How do children express emotional well-being when in the teacher's lap? Relational, sociocultural and revised attachment approaches to emotional well-being supplied the theoretical framework of the study. Data were collected by ethnographic methods and analysed qualitatively. Two day-care groups in Finland participated. For most of the day, at least one child was in a teacher's lap. The teacher's lap signified, for example, not only consolation and confidence but also delight. Furthermore, for the children, it was a contested site for gaining teacher attention and displaying power. The teachers also enjoyed this affective bond with the children, while having a child in their lap also had practical value, for example, sometimes it guaranteed undisturbed play for the other children.
... The MA nature of the centre that creates the essence of family and community was also seen as a strength in building children's pro-social behaviours. Pro-social behaviours in early childhood have been described using terms such as empathy, sharing, compassion, cooperation, helping others, compromise, are and respect for others, and hugging other childrenany behaviour that benefits others (Hyson & Taylor, 2011;McClellan & Kinsey, 1999;Ramaswamy & Bergin, 2009). It is these behaviours that the educators felt were facilitated as a consequence of the MA engagement with the outdoor space at the study site. ...
Article
Children attending centre-based early childhood care and education programmes across Australia are most likely to be grouped according to age and development. While multi- or mixed-age grouping has been seen to have positive benefits on young children's learning and pro-social behaviours, this approach is not usually adopted in the organisation of children's grouping in most long day care settings across the county. This paper reports on a case study which explored one urban children's setting where the outdoor learning space has been specifically designed to enable a mixed-age approach for children. The findings suggest that while the educators see many benefits across the age groups in engaging in this approach, there is still a preference to segregate the very young children arising from concerns for their safety. The study also found that planning for learning especially in regards pro-social learning with the older children has been problematic.
... There are two possible conclusions here: either the amount of time allotted to observe the children's prosociality (five minutes) was not long enough to bring out a sufficient number of prosocial behaviours among the children or the results reflect the true frequency of these behaviours when spontaneously displayed without any prompting by an experimenter, and thus bring us closer to the level of proximal prosocial development of the children. By extension, this underscores the importance of the support provided by ECEs in terms of fostering greater diversity in the prosocial interpersonal problem-solving strategies used by children (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009; Honig, 1996; Hyson & Taylor, 2011; Katz & McClellan, 1997), in particular through scaffolding. Indeed, although children are able to verbally provide suitable solutions to hypothetical situations involving conflict, it can nevertheless be more difficult for them to put these solutions into action in natural settings. ...
Article
Full-text available
This article examines the prosociality of four-year-old girls and boys in childcare centres. More specifically, it aims to measure gender differences in prosociality among children, based on three sources and methods of evaluation: (1) the early childhood educator's (ECE) perception (perceived prosociality), (2) the children's own responses to hypothetical interpersonal problem-solving situations (expressed prosociality) and (3) observation of the children's prosocial behaviour during symbolic play with a peer (observed prosociality). In line with many studies in this field, the results show that girls are perceived by their ECEs as being more prosocial than boys. However, analyses of the data on expressed prosociality and observed prosociality did not reveal a significant gender effect. These results are discussed with respect to the influence that differential perceptions based on gender have on the assessment of children's prosociality. Some possible explanations for this gender gap, particularly in educational contexts, are put forward.
Conference Paper
Full-text available
In this study, which was supported by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkiye 2209-A University Students Research Projects, it was aimed to design game-based activities for prosocial development in early childhood education and to design it as an original guidebook for preschool teachers. Providing prosocial development in early childhood has a critical role in realizing lifelong social adaptation. In this period, it is emphasized that prosocial behaviors are a part of the socialization process, but it is a more advanced skill. In this context, it was thought that designing a book including examples of guiding activities for teachers to develop prosocial behaviors that they can apply in their classrooms. In the study, it was structured in accordance with the design-based research method, following the steps of preliminary research, development and evaluation. In the preliminary research phase; A literature review was conducted, and three focus group interviews were conducted in groups of 10 with 30 teachers working in pre-school education institutions in Izmir, selected through purposive sampling. In the development phase; By making use of the data at the preliminary research stage, activities to develop game-based and prosocial behaviors were designed. In the evaluation phase; the designed activities were presented to the opinion of 6 early childhood education experts working in the preschool education departments of three state universities in Izmir. Some arrangements were made in the activities in line with the expert opinions. As a result, activities developed to support prosocial behaviors in various developmental areas in early childhood were collected in a booklet
Article
Full-text available
The low students' care character in inclusive elementary schools can lead to bullying behavior. The result of the preliminary needs analysis is 57.17% with low category showing that most of students became the victims of bullying. In fact, character is one of the keys to successful learning in the 21st century. Thus, a learning program is needed that can overcome these problems. This study aims to investigate the impact of the Living Values Educational Program (LVEP) in improving students' social caring character. The character of social care is divided into four sub-categories, namely empathy, appreciating, helping, and sharing. The quasi-experimental design method was used in this study. Participants were 56 fifth grade students (31 girls and 25 boys) who were divided into experimental (n = 27) and control (n = 29) groups. The study was conducted in two inclusive elementary schools in the first semester during the 2019/2020 academic year. Observations using a checklist were conducted as pre-and post-test. To analyze the data, the independent sample t-test and paired sample t-test were at 0.05 significance level. The results showed that the Living Values Educational Program (LVEP) significantly improved the students' social care character in the experimental class compared to control class students. The experimental group students had higher scores on both variables than the control class. Thus, it is expected that that the existence of a high social care character can prevent students from bullying behavior.
Article
In the current study, we examined associations among early childcare workers' emotional competence, observed responsiveness, comfort with socioemotional teaching practices, and the quality of their relationships with children in their care. The participants were 100 early childcare workers (72 center-based Early Head Start teachers and 28 family childcare providers). Results showed that caregivers' emotion regulation ability was positively associated with caregiver-child relational closeness. Understanding and regulation of emotion were both positively associated with childcare workers' comfort with socioemotional teaching practices. Their observed responsiveness was positively related to relational closeness and negatively related to relational conflict. Findings are consistent with aspects of the prosocial classroom model, which asserts that educators high in emotional and social competence tend to adopt childcare practices that result in supportive relationships with children. Results provide insight into whether childcare workers' responsiveness to young children and their perceived socioemotional teaching practices provide a pathway between emotional competence and the quality of caregiver-child relationships. © 2019 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.
Article
Full-text available
The acquisition and strengthening of prosocial behaviors are associated with a reduction in the frequency of antisocial, aggressive or risk behaviors. Thus, its promotion in the context of the implementation of the Organic Law 5/2000, of 12 January, regulating the criminal responsibility of minors would be an effective strategy for the purposes of reeducation and social reintegration that it presupposes. Then, it will be necessary to review the possibilities that the law provides for their development, as well as to detect success factors that contribute to increasing the impact of such interventions. To that end, it will be carried out a comparative analysis of interventions aimed at the promotion of prosocial behaviors in the school context, in the programs developed in detention centers in Andalusia and, lastly, in the implementation of judicial measures of community service, tasks to educate for life in society and probation. The main findings show that an integral approach that involves working with the personal dimensions of temperament and cognitive, moral and socioafective development; the use of active methodologies; the training of the professionals who execute the program; or the involvement of families are among those success factors associated with the different interventions analyzed. Moreover, among the measures included in the Organic Law 5/2000, the community service as a judicial measure and as an out-of-court dispute settlement procedure (in both forms), as well as the conciliation and redress within the latter, result important in relation to the promotion of prosocial behaviors. © 2019, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. All rights reserved.
Article
Full-text available
Intisari. Kemerosotan moral merupakan masalah yang dihadapi Indonesia saat ini. Menipisnya perilaku prososial bukan saja terjadi pada orang dewasa namun juga pada remaja, oleh karena itu pendidikan karakter penting untuk diberikan kepada murid-murid sebagai upaya untuk mengatasi kemerosotan moral ini. Kurikulum 2013 dianggap sebagai kurikulum yang mampu menjawab kebutuhan untuk mengatasi masalah karakter generasi muda. Sebagai konsekuensi dari implementasi kurikulum ini, maka kegiatan kepramukaan diberlakukan sebagai ekstrakurikuler yang wajib diikuti murid. Alasannya adalah kegiatan kepramukaan mendidik karakter murid sehingga menjadi pribadi yang prososial dan cinta tanah air. Menanggapi hal ini, peneliti melakukan penelitian eksperimen untuk menguji pengaruh kegiatan kepramukaan terhadap perilaku prososial remaja di SMP Santa Ursula Jakarta. Subyek penelitian terdiri dari kelompok eksperimen (N=34) dan kelompok control (N=34). Kelompok eksperimen diberi treatment berupa kegiatan kepramukaan sebanyak 11 kali pertemuan, sedangkan kelompok control tidak diberi perlakuan. Sesudah treatment dilakukan, kedua kelompok diukur perilaku prososialnya dengan menggunakan kuesioner berisi pernyataan-pernyataan tentang perilaku prososial. Hasil dari penelitian ini adalah terdapat perbedaan sangat signifikan antara perilaku prososial kelompok eksperimen dengan kelompok control. Rata-rata perilaku prososial kelompok eksperimen lebih tinggi dari kelompok control. Aspek-aspek perilaku prososial juga diuji dalam penelitian ini. Perilaku menolong, berbagi dan memberi penguatan, mempertimbangkan hak dan kesejahteraan orang lain, menghargai dan kompromi memberi hasil berbeda sangat signifikan antara kelompok eksperimen dengan kelompok control. Rata-rata perilaku di aspek-aspek ini untuk kelompok eksperimen lebih tinggi dari kelompok control. Perilaku dermawan berbeda signifikan, kelompok eksperimen lebih tinggi dari kelompok control. Sedangkan rerata perilaku jujur dan bekerjasama menunjukkan tidak ada perbedaan antara kedua kelompok. Kata kunci: perilaku prososial, kegiatan kepramukaan
Article
Full-text available
The prosocial behavior of preschool children hasn’t developed, so it is much needed to conduct some ways to develop the prosocial behavior. Storytelling using Wayang Kancil is one of the wealth of Indonesia Nation. It is expected to be an interesting media that can stimulate prosocial behavior of preschool children. The purpose of this study is to find whether story telling using Wayang Kancil can enhance the understanding of prosocial behavior for preschool children. This study uses quasi-experimental method, which involves two subject groups from two Kindergartens as experimental and control group. The implementation of storytelling using Wayang Kancil is delivered by storyteller. The knowledge measurement of prosocial behavior for subject is well conducted before and after the treatment. The measurement is conducted by giving stimulus like pictorial story to the subjects. After that, the subject’s answer is given score depends on scoring criteria. The analysis data uses Mann-Whitney U Test that shows the significant difference in understanding prosocialattitude between experimental and control groups (Z=-3,137; p=0,002 (p<0,01)). The understanding of prosocial behavior in experimental group is higher than the control group.
Chapter
Full-text available
The United States is the most tornado-active country in the world, accounting for about 75% of the yearly number of tornadoes worldwide. Among just the top 14 tornado-prone U. S. states, there are over 12 million kindergarten and elementary school children potentially at-risk. The intensity and unpredictability of tornado storm stimuli can be especially stressful or traumatizing for young children because their perceptions, thoughts, and feelings are much more sensory-oriented than those of older children, adolescents, and adults. Moreover, children’s coping abilities may be easily overwhelmed in the aftermath of a disaster event that impacts their families and their communities. Teachers are often the professionals most knowledgeable about individual children’s needs outside of immediate family members. They stand in a pivotal and critical position to assist children’s successful adaptation to, and recovery from, tornado disasters. This chapter contains information about the range of young children’s reactions to tornado events, recommendations to manage children’s post-disaster recovery in the classroom, and bibliographic and web-based links to access tornado-relevant resources.
Article
One hundred fifty preservice teachers and 25 in-service teachers were surveyed to examine whether mental representations of relationships, confidence about managing bullying, empathy toward victims, and emotional expressiveness were associated with their peer victimization-related beliefs. Teachers' confidence about managing bullying was positively associated with their prosocial peer beliefs. In addition, the belief that the distress that children experience as a result of being victimized should be dismissed was negatively related to teachers' positive representations. Teachers' reports of positive emotional expressiveness were negatively related to normative, assertive, avoidance, and dismissive victimization-related beliefs and positively related to prosocial peer beliefs. In contrast, teachers' reports of negative emotional expressiveness were negatively related to prosocial peer beliefs and avoidance victimization-related beliefs. In-service teachers reported slightly higher positive expressiveness than preservice teachers did. Minority teachers reported higher scores for positive expressiveness, empathy, and lower negative classroom expressiveness than nonminority teachers did. Implications of these findings for practice are discussed.
Article
Psychiatric nurses are expert care providers for individuals with mental health needs. The art of caring spans across multiple species, is important to understand, and is universal whether intentions are toward individuals or animals. Pets are often cared for and viewed as family members. The current research examined psychiatric nurses’ views on the similarities and differences of caring for patients and their pet dogs. Twenty-five nurses were interviewed. Similarities of caring for patients and canines included trusting relationships, companionship, daily basic needs, and improved communication through monitored body language. Differences in caring included personal expectations, unconditional love, and professional boundaries. Understanding the concepts of caring for patients and pet dogs will provide the opportunity for insight into familial versus professional relationships, improve communication with others, and strengthen the human–animal bond.
Article
The purpose of this research is to investigate how pre-service elementary teacher candidates believe Disney films socialize children and what systems of values and ideas have been created by these cartoons. The conceptualframework for this study draws from the cultural systems paradigm (CSP) as a holistic study of cultural systems. A theme analysis was performed on a census of twenty animated films identified as the most watched in the Disney collection. The study examines images and actions through five sub-questions addressing issues such as: diversity in the society, characteristics of the protagonists, values, gender roles, and citizenship traits. The 116 students taking courses in social studies education methods at a Midwestern university in the US served as respondents. Suggestions concerning how teachers can use Disney films to critically discuss symbolically embedded messages are also presented.
Book
Through its unique integration of curriculum and learning principles, Early Childhood Curriculum: A Constructivist Perspective, 2nd Edition fosters authentic, developmentally appropriate practice for both preschool and early elementary classrooms. The constructivist format of this book encourages active involvement on the part of readers by asking them to observe, question, reflect, research, and analyze, thus allowing readers to create their own knowledge through their responses and actions.
Article
Full-text available
Robots are becoming an increasingly pervasive feature of our personal lives. As a result, there is growing importance placed on examining what constitutes appropriate behavior when they interact with human beings. In this paper, we discuss whether companion robots should be permitted to "nudge" their human users in the direction of being "more ethical". More specifically, we use Rawlsian principles of justice to illustrate how robots might nurture "socially just" tendencies in their human counterparts. Designing technological artifacts in such a way to influence human behavior is already well-established but merely because the practice is commonplace does not necessarily resolve the ethical issues associated with its implementation.
Article
Full-text available
Teachers were trained to use reinforcement and induction to increase prosocial behavior in a sample of 98 children in Head Start-affiliated preschools, using a peer coaching model. There was one control group and three intervention groups: reinforcement-only, induction-only, and reinforcement-and-induction. Results indicated that the intervention groups showed a significant increase in total classroom prosocial behavior compared to the control group. The induction-only group increased dramatically in affection. The reinforcement-only group increased more in helping, sharing, and cooperation than in affection and comforting. Teacher behaviors in the classroom did not reflect conclusively that they were using the intervention strategies, possibly due to inadequate measurement.
Article
Full-text available
At the same time young babies are developing an understanding of self as separate from others--what it means to be "me"--many also face having to negotiate living, learning, growing, and developing as part of a group--what it means to be "we". This is true for more than half of all infants in the United States under the age of 9 months, who now spend many or most of their waking hours in some type of group care outside the home. This article discusses how to encourage prosocial babies in group settings. It features three classrooms where teachers encourage and support prosocial behaviors in babies and allow strong positive social emotional development to occur in infants and toddlers and prosocial skills to flourish. In the case of these three classrooms, it is evident that infants and toddlers are indeed up to the challenge of grappling with understanding the difficult lessons of becoming "we" and "me" at the same time. This article also provides the authors' definition of babies' prosocial behaviors and shows how young babies have a remarkable capacity for prosocial behavior, an ability greatly underestimated by traditional child development theorists.
Article
Full-text available
This reflective essay describes the author’s experiences as an observer in a behaviorist infant classroom. The author developed four categories of practice to describe what happened in the behaviorist infant room: (1) curricular focus on training typically developing infants to meet typical developmental milestones, (2) the use of highly structured play by staff as the means for meeting their training goals for the babies, (3) particular uses of language by staff in the behaviorist classroom, and (4) ways in which the staff’s adherence to core beliefs in behaviorism led to a lack of recognition of infants’ individual expressions of needs and wants. The article concludes with the author’s reflections on researchers’ ethical responsibilities when faced with an environment that they consider inappropriate and potentially harmful to children.
Article
Full-text available
This study examined the association between the security of attachment and processes influencing the development of emotion regulation in young children. A sample of 73 4 1/2-year-olds and their mothers were observed in an emotion regulation probe involving mild frustration for children, and mothers and children were later independently interviewed about how the child had felt. Fewer than half the mothers agreed with children's self-reports in the emotion they attributed to children (a lower rate than the concordance of observer ratings with children's self-reports), and higher mother-child concordance was associated with secure attachment and mother's beliefs about the importance of attending to and accepting their own emotions. Mother-child conversations about recent events evoking children's negative emotion were also analyzed. Children were less likely to avoid conversing about negative feelings when they were in secure attachments and when mothers were more validating of the child's perspective. Children's greater understanding of negative emotions was also significantly associated with higher mother-child concordance and less child conversational avoidance. Taken together, these findings underscore the multiple influences of attachment on emotion regulation and the importance of children's emotion understanding to these processes.
Article
Full-text available
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 reactions and prosocial behavior were observed when interacting with an adult in a quasi-experimental situation. Results showed that children from the two South-East Asian cultures, as compared to children from the two Western cultures, displayed more self-focused distress and less prosocial behavior. Across cultures, a positive relation between sympathy and prosocial behavior and a negative relation between self-focused distress and prosocial behavior were found. The strengths of these relations were moderated by culture. These results are discussed with regard to their cultural meaning in the specific experimental situation as well as to general culture-specific characteristics.
Article
Full-text available
Is the quality of early relationships linked to later emotional development? Children with secure attachments at twelve and eighteen months of age are more empathic and prosocial toward others.
Article
Using longitudinal data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (N = 1,162) and the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (N = 1,308), we estimate associations between material and instrumental support available to low-income mothers and young children’s socioemotional well-being. In multivariate OLS models, we find mothers’ available support is negatively associated with children’s behavior problems and positively associated with prosocial behavior in both data sets; associations between available support and children’s internalizing and prosocial behaviors attenuate but remain robust in residualized change models. Overall, results support the hypothesis that the availability of a private safety net is positively associated with children’s socioemotional adjustment.
Article
Canadian data based on maternal reports for a nationally representative sample of 4,521 4—5-year-olds were used to examine associations among child care, family factors, and behaviors in preschool-aged children. Linear regressions testing for direct and moderated associations indicated that regulated home-based care was associated with less physical aggression and less prosocial behavior while high process quality in home-based care was associated with greater prosocial behavior. Among children in home-based settings, being in at least one additional current child care arrangement was linked with greater physical aggression, and low child care stability was linked to greater hyperactivity-inattention, internalizing behavior, and prosocial behaviors. For family factors, parenting behaviors and maternal depression were associated with greater behavioral problems while low household income was linked with greater hyperactivity-inattention among children in home-based care. There was a significant interaction between process quality and household income for physical aggression and internalizing behavior and between structure quality and parenting consistency for prosocial behavior for children in home-based care. Results suggest that child care matters for preschool behavioral outcomes, even after controlling for socio-demographic factors. High quality care appears particularly important for children in home-based care from low-income families so issues around child care quality and regulation should be considered. Findings also underscore the importance of family factors on young children’s behaviors and show that child care and family influences work together to impact child outcomes.
Article
Three- to five-year-olds grow emotionally participating in meaningful and challenging physical, social, and problem-solving activities outdoors in an early childhood program on a farm. Caring for animals, planting, raking, shoveling, and engaging in meaningful indoor activities, under adult supervision, children learn to work collaboratively, socially construct knowledge, and develop social skills while cooperating, helping, negotiating, and talking with others. This article describes how these activities are practiced at the Children's Farm School near St. Paul, Minnesota, where Big Jobs--jobs that require physical exertion, thinking and problem solving, and functional use of language (as in group planning and giving or following directions)--are part of a normal day's routine. Research validates the use of Big Jobs to challenge children. Beginning in the 1930s, theorists of the Adler school of psychology viewed children's motivation as being rooted in children's feeling of emotional competence and linked to self-concept. This article presents descriptions of some of the routine Big Jobs at the Children's Farm School.
Article
A preventive intervention for reducing physical and relational aggression, peer victimization, and increasing prosocial behavior was developed for use in early childhood classrooms. Nine classrooms were randomly assigned to be intervention rooms (N = 202 children) and nine classrooms were control rooms (N = 201 children). Classroom was the unit of analysis and both observations and teacher-reports were obtained at pre and post-test. Focus groups were used to develop the initial program. The 6-week program consisted of developmentally appropriate puppet shows, active participatory sessions, passive concept activities and in vivo reinforcement periods. Preliminary findings suggest that the “Early Childhood Friendship Project” tended to reduce physical and relational aggression, as well as physical and relational victimization and tended to increase prosocial behavior more for intervention than control classrooms. Teachers and interventionists provided positive evaluations of the program and there is evidence for appropriate program implementation.