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Impact of an Empathy Training Program on Children's Perspective-Taking Abilities
Durmuş Aslan1, Aysel Köksal Akyol2
1Department of Early Childhood Education, Faculty of Education, Cukurova University, Adana, Turkey.
Psychological Reports
|August 13, 2019
Summary
This study shows that an empathy training program significantly improved preschool children's perspective-taking skills. These gains in empathy and perspective-taking abilities were sustained one month post-intervention.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- Early childhood education is crucial for social-emotional development.
- Perspective-taking is a key component of empathy and social competence.
- Limited research exists on structured empathy training programs for preschoolers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of a researcher-developed empathy training program.
- To assess the impact of the program on preschool children's perspective-taking abilities.
- To determine the long-term effects of the empathy training.
Main Methods:
- A quasi-experimental design with 34 preschool children.
- Intervention group received a 10-week, 30-activity empathy training program.
- Control group received the standard preschool curriculum.
- Perspective-taking abilities assessed via the Perspective-Taking Test for Children through individual interviews.
Main Results:
- The empathy training program significantly enhanced children's perspective-taking performance.
- Children in the treatment group showed greater improvement compared to the nonintervention group.
- The positive effects on perspective-taking persisted one month after the training concluded.
Conclusions:
- The developed empathy training program is effective in improving preschool children's perspective-taking skills.
- Early intervention in empathy development can yield lasting benefits.
- Findings support the integration of targeted social-emotional learning programs in early education.
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