Promoting the Development of Prosocial Emotions Via a Home-Based Intervention
Prosocial emotions (e.g., empathy, guilt) promote positive interpersonal relations, helping, and caring (Kochanska, 1997). Children with conduct problems (CP) and co-occurring callous-unemotional (CU) traits are defined by a lack of prosocial emotions and long-term negative outcomes (McMahon et al., 2010; Waller et al., 2019). Treatments for CP are less effective when children also have CU traits, and therefore should be modified to target the specific prosocial emotion deficits associated with CU traits. Other limitations to treatment include time and resource commitments that deter families. The current study addresses these limitations by testing an at-home, board game intervention to promote the development of prosocial emotions in children. In our sample (N=46), children were randomly assigned to the board game or control condition. The parent-child dyad played the board game 4 times over a 6-week period. While we hypothesized that children in the board game condition would show reductions in CP and CU traits, as well as increases in empathy and prosocial behavior, we did not see significant differences on these measures at follow up. As the sample size was limited, as well as the level of variability in CU traits, future research is being planned to address limitations.
Comments
Hi Callie, If this sort of…
Hi Callie,
If this sort of intervention works, it would be pretty remarkable! It's a shame you didn't find any changes over time. You briefly mention that there might have been restricted variance in the CU traits in the sample. Were ANY of the kids showing clinically elevated levels of CU traits? Do you think there's a "sweet spot" of somewhat elevated CU traits that might be amenable to an intervention like this, while high CU trait kids probably would need a much more intensive intervention. It's notable that the sample was predominantly female as well, given that boys are more likely to show elevated CU traits. Might you expect the intervention to be more effective in one sex over the other? I'm also curious as to where the games came from. Did the EDEN lab manufacture them, or are they available on the market? It would be interesting to hear more about them.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Cheers,
Dr. Hunt
Interesting!
Hello Callie,
This is a very interesting project. I am very curious about your design. Do you expect behavioral change in more typical samples (no CP/CU) as a result of playing these board games? Do you think you would have found a significant difference if the children had more exposure to the board games or reinforcement of the themes?
Hi Callie, What a clever…
Hi Callie,
What a clever intervention approach! The poster has a clear organization though the title does take up a lot of space. I would love to hear more about the games and how they promote empathy, manners, friendship, and emotion recognition.
Could the decisions made during gameplay be a more sensitive measure for changes in CU traits?
In addition to the points raised in your future directions, do you think more play sessions could help?
Do you think measuring the effect of playing a non intervention board game would be a worthwhile control?
Best,
Mike Arcaro