Avaliação de um programa para o desenvolvimento da empatia em crianças no contexto escolar

• Autor(a) principal: Motta, Danielle da Cunha
• Data de Publicação: 2011
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UERJ
• Texto Completo: http://www.bdtd.uerj.br/handle/1/15047
• topic: Empathy; Development; Child; Empatia; Desenvolvimento; Criança; CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::PSICOLOGIA

The importance of empathy as an indispensable element for healthy child development has been identified in several studies. However, there are very few records of national researches regarding programs developed aiming to promote it, or to enhance its development. Although empathy has an innate biological base, in order to fully blossom, it depends on social stimulation, educational practices and the environment in which children are raised. Alongside parents, the school, where children spend much of their day, occupies a prominent place in early childhood education. Considering the importance of empathy for healthy child development, and the influence that school education can have on it, a program with the goal of improving its development in school was proposed. The general objective of this study was to develop the program and test its efficacy. The specific objectives were the following: a) Elaborate and describe the procedures utilized in intervention; b) Verify whether, upon completion of the program, the experimental group participants would exhibit significantly higher levels on empathy measures when compared to the baseline; c) Verify whether, upon completion of the program, the experimental group participants would exhibit significantly higher levels on empathy measures when compared to children of the control group; d) Additionally, standardize the Empathy Test in Short Scenes (TEC: Motta, 2005). For the assessment of empathy, we use: a measure of self-report the Empathy Scale for Children and Adolescents (EECA: Bryant, 1982); an accurate measure of empathy the TEC (Motta, 2005); the teacher s evaluation the Teacher's Rating of Empathy (Barnett & cols., 1982); and the students assessment the Classmate s Empathy, adapted from the Peer's Rating of Empathy (Barnett & cols., 1982). Forty Three students participated in the program, from second and third grades of a public school in Rio de Janeiro. Each class was randomly split in two groups, one experimental/placebo (EP experimental in the first segment of the research, placebo, in the second segment) and the other placebo/experimental (PE placebo in the first segment of the research, experimental in the second segment). The longitudinal model was followed in the pre-test and post-test. In the first phase of the research, the EP groups participated in 11 meetings of an hour each, with activities oriented towards the development of empathy, while the PE groups participated in recreational activities for children. In the second phase, the PE groups received the same treatment offered in the first phase to the EP groups, vice versa. The results indicated that the training benefited the empathy of the research participants. It is suggested that the implementation of programs for the development of empathy can contribute to the promotion and improvement of this skill in schools. Keywords: empathy, development, child.