Understanding Child Development

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Kindness is shaped not only by genes but also by children's experiences.

A randomized controlled trial found that a school kindness program improved multiple student outcomes.

The benefits extended beyond kindness to happiness, behaviour, relationships, and learning.

Kindness is typically understood as "actions intended to benefit others, usually at some cost" to the actor. Research has found that kindness-related traits emerge early in infancy and continue to develop throughout childhood. Individual differences in kindness—and related traits such as altruism, benevolence, and compassion—are partly due to genetic differences, but largely due to differences in children's experiences outside the home.

School-Based Social and Emotional Learning

Schools are one possible source of these experiences, and school-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs are one attempt to provide them. A growing body of evidence suggests that they work. Recent meta-analyses have found that SEL programs have small-to-moderate positive effects........

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