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Grazzani I. Promoting theory of mind and emotion understanding in preschool settings: an exploratory training study. Front Psychol 2024; 15:1439824. [PMID: 39165761 PMCID: PMC11333321 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1439824] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2024] [Accepted: 07/25/2024] [Indexed: 08/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Introduction This new exploratory study is part of a larger ongoing follow-up project. Its specific aim was to verify whether an innovative European Program, primarily designed to enhance children's social and emotional learning, led to gains in theory of mind and emotion understanding when implemented in preschool settings. Methods Thirty-four children (mean age: 56.4 months; SD: 10.1; range: 40-70 months) participated in the study. They were randomly and equally divided into a training group and a control group. The training sample completed eight linguistic-conversational activities drawn from the Program, in groups of 5 to 6 children, over 8 weeks. The activities were based on listening to stories and/or watching videos and then thinking and talking about the inner world (thoughts and emotions) of the story characters as well as the participants' own inner states. During the training phase, the children in the control group engaged in drawing or free play activities. At both the pre-test and post-test phases of the study, all the children completed a language test, a battery of theory of mind (ToM) tasks (including 'change of location' and 'unexpected content' tasks), and the Test of Emotion Comprehension which evaluates nine components of emotion understanding (EU). The validated national versions of the tests were administered in all cases. Results Significant differences were identified between the training and control groups. Indeed, the participants in the Program training activities, which were based on conversational exchanges between an adult and a group of children, as well as among the children themselves, outperformed the control participants on both overall theory of mind and overall emotion understanding. A more detailed analysis showed that the training group outperformed the control group in relation to both specific components of EU and the 'change of location' ToM task. Discussion The results of this exploratory study suggest that the Program is effective at enhancing preschoolers' social understanding and thus merits implementation in preschool settings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ilaria Grazzani
- Department of Human Sciences for Education “R. Massa”, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
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Conte E, Cavioni V, Ornaghi V, Agliati A, Gandellini S, Santos MF, Santos AC, Simões C, Grazzani I. Supporting Preschoolers' Mental Health and Academic Learning through the PROMEHS Program: A Training Study. CHILDREN (BASEL, SWITZERLAND) 2023; 10:1070. [PMID: 37371301 DOI: 10.3390/children10061070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2023] [Revised: 06/09/2023] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023]
Abstract
There is compelling evidence that early school intervention programs enhance children's development of life skills, with a positive knock-on effect on their behaviors and academic outcomes. To date, most universal interventions have displayed gains in children's social-emotional competencies with a limited reduction in problem behaviors. This may depend on programs' curricula focused to a greater extent on preschoolers' social-emotional competencies rather than problem behaviors. Promoting Mental Health at Schools (PROMEHS) is a European, school-based, universal mental health program explicitly focused on both promoting students' mental health and preventing negative conduct by adopting a whole-school approach. In this study, we set out to evaluate the effectiveness of the program for Italian and Portuguese preschoolers. We recruited 784 children (age range = 4-5 years), assigning them to either an experimental group (six months' participation in the PROMEHS program under the guidance of their teachers, who had received ad hoc training) or a waiting list group (no intervention). We found that PROMEHS improved preschoolers' social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies, prosocial behavior, and academic outcomes. The more practical activities were carried out at school, the more children's SEL competencies increased, and the more their internalizing and externalizing behaviors decreased. Furthermore, marginalized and disadvantaged children were those who benefited most from the program, displaying both greater improvements in SEL and more marked decreases in internalizing problems compared to the rest of the sample.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisabetta Conte
- "R. Massa" Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
| | - Valeria Cavioni
- "R. Massa" Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
- Department of Humanities, Literature, Cultural Heritage, Education Sciences, University of Foggia, 71121 Foggia, Italy
| | - Veronica Ornaghi
- "R. Massa" Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
| | - Alessia Agliati
- "R. Massa" Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
| | - Sabina Gandellini
- "R. Massa" Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
| | - Margarida Frade Santos
- Department of Education, Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, 1495-751 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Anabela Caetano Santos
- Department of Education, Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, 1495-751 Lisbon, Portugal
- Environmental Health Institute (ISAMB), Faculty of Medicine, University of Lisbon, 1649-028 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Celeste Simões
- Department of Education, Social Sciences and Humanities, Faculty of Human Kinetics, University of Lisbon, 1495-751 Lisbon, Portugal
| | - Ilaria Grazzani
- "R. Massa" Department of Human Sciences for Education, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
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Cigala A, Mori A. Perspective Taking Ability in Psychologically Maltreated Children: A Protective Factor in Peer Social Adjustment. Front Psychol 2022; 13:816514. [PMID: 35310280 PMCID: PMC8929140 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.816514] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2021] [Accepted: 02/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Perspective taking is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct characterized by three components: cognitive, affective, and visual. The experience of psychological maltreatment impairs the child's emotional competence; in particular, maltreated children present difficulty in understanding and regulating emotions and in social understanding ability. In addition, the literature contains several contributions that highlight maladaptive behaviors of children with a history of maltreatment in peer interactions in the school context. Perspective taking ability has rarely been studied in maltreated children and the existing studies have produced different and often conflicting results that require further insights. On the grounds of these premises, the main objective of the present research is to investigate perspective taking ability in preschool children from maltreating and non-maltreating family contexts and its role in social adjustment, in terms of prosocial and aggressive behavior toward peers inside the kindergarten. A second objective is to verify the effectiveness of a training aimed to promote perspective taking ability in victims of psychological maltreatment. This research, organized into two separate studies, involved 249 preschool children: 206 children from non-maltreating family contexts and 43 brought up in psychologically maltreating families. Perspective taking was measured via the administration of several tests, and prosocial behavior and aggressiveness were observed via non-participant observations in the school context. The training involved maltreated children in small-group meetings based on familiar and appealing activities within the mother-child community. The overall results show that children's perspective taking ability, in particular the affective perspective taking, contributed to social adjustment. In fact, greater affective perspective taking ability was correlated to a higher frequency of prosocial behaviors toward peers and minor frequency of aggressiveness. Finally, the results of the training (pre/post-test comparison) showed an increase in perspective taking, especially in the affective dimension, and a consequent increase in prosocial behaviors and a decrease in aggressive ones. Therefore, the affective perspective taking ability seems to represent a very significant protective factor, which should be focused and strengthened in order to improve the social adaptation of preschool children who are victims of psychological abuse.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ada Cigala
- Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries (DUSIC), University of Parma, Parma, Italy
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Özcan MŞ, Çetinkaya E, Göksun T, Kisbu-Sakarya Y. Does learning to code influence cognitive skills of elementary school children? Findings from a randomized experiment. BRITISH JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021; 91:1434-1455. [PMID: 34042178 DOI: 10.1111/bjep.12429] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/03/2020] [Revised: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Coding has been added to school curricula in several countries, being one of the necessary competencies of the 21st century. Although it has also been suggested to foster the development of several cognitive skills such as computational thinking and problem-solving, studies on the effects of coding are very limited, provide mixed results, and lack causal evidence. AIM This study aims to evaluate the impact of a learn-to-code programme on three cognitive skills in children: computational thinking, fluid intelligence, and spatial orientation, using a randomized trial. SAMPLE One hundred seventy-four (n = 81 girls) 4th-grade children participated in the study. METHODS Children were randomly assigned to one of the three 10-week learning programmes: learn-to-code (treatment of interest), mathematics (another STEM-related comparison treatment), and reading (control). Children responded to paper-pencil computational thinking, and spatial orientation measurements, and face-to-face matrix reasoning task at pre- and post-tests. RESULTS Results showed that children's computational thinking scores increased significantly only in the learn-to-code condition. Fluid intelligence significantly increased in all conditions, possibly due to a practice effect. The spatial orientation did not improve in any of the conditions. CONCLUSION These findings suggested that learning to code can be selectively beneficial for the development of computational thinking skills while not effective for spatial reasoning and fluid intelligence.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Esra Çetinkaya
- Department of Psychology, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
| | - Tilbe Göksun
- Department of Psychology, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
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Liang YS, Yang HX, Zhang YJ, Cai XL, Wang YY, Ni K, Pu CC, Zhou SZ, Ma YT, Lui SSY, Wang Y, Yu X, Chan RCK. Validation of the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy in patients with schizophrenia, major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder. Cogn Neuropsychiatry 2020; 25:466-479. [PMID: 33172340 DOI: 10.1080/13546805.2020.1846025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Alteration of empathy is common in patients with psychiatric disorders. Reliable and valid assessment tools for measuring empathy of clinical samples is needed. The Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) is a newly-developed instrument to capture cognitive and affective components of empathy. This study aimed to validate the QCAE and compared self-reported empathy between clinical groups with varied psychiatric diagnoses and healthy sample. METHODS The present study performed factor analysis for the QCAE on clinical samples in the Chinese setting (n = 534), including patients with schizophrenia (n = 158), bipolar disorder (n = 213) and major depressive disorder (n = 163). Internal consistency, internal correlation and convergent validity was examined in the subsample (n = 361). Group comparison among patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and healthy controls (n = 107) was conducted to assess the discriminant validity. RESULTS Our results indicated acceptable factor model, good reliability and validity of the QCAE. Impaired cognitive empathy was found in clinical samples, especially in patients with schizophrenia, while higher affective empathy was found in patients with bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. CONCLUSION The QCAE is a useful tool in assessing empathy in patients with varied psychiatric diagnoses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yun-Si Liang
- Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Han-Xue Yang
- Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Yi-Jing Zhang
- Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Xin-Lu Cai
- Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Yan-Yu Wang
- School of Psychology, Weifang Medical University, Shandong, People's Republic of China
| | - Ke Ni
- Qiqihar Mental Health Center, Heilongjiang, People's Republic of China
| | - Cheng-Cheng Pu
- Peking University Sixth Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Peking University Institute of Mental Health, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University), Beijing, People's Republic of China.,National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Shu-Zhe Zhou
- Peking University Sixth Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Peking University Institute of Mental Health, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University), Beijing, People's Republic of China.,National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Yan-Tao Ma
- Peking University Sixth Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Peking University Institute of Mental Health, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University), Beijing, People's Republic of China.,National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Simon S Y Lui
- Department of Psychiatry, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China.,Castle Peak Hospital, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China
| | - Yi Wang
- Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Xin Yu
- Peking University Sixth Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Peking University Institute of Mental Health, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,NHC Key Laboratory of Mental Health (Peking University), Beijing, People's Republic of China.,National Clinical Research Center for Mental Disorders (Peking University Sixth Hospital), Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Raymond C K Chan
- Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Sino-Danish College, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
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