Online Strategies to Promote Children's Empathy, Gratitude and Diligence: A Feasibility Study Exploring Parent Implementation.
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| Title: | Online Strategies to Promote Children's Empathy, Gratitude and Diligence: A Feasibility Study Exploring Parent Implementation. |
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| Authors: | Batanova, Milena, Hudani, Naaila, Rowe, Meredith, Weissbourd, Richard |
| Source: | Journal of Child & Family Studies. Jun2025, Vol. 34 Issue 6, p1538-1554. 17p. |
| Subjects: | Empathy, Psychological resilience, Medical care, Parent-child relationships, Pilot projects, Emotional intelligence, Parenting, Emotions, Internet, Self-control, Descriptive statistics, Surveys, Motivation (Psychology), Social skills, Analysis of variance, Health promotion, Child behavior |
| Geographic Terms: | United States |
| Abstract: | There are a multitude of online tips, strategies, and general resources for parents to guide their children's development, but very little is known about the extent to which parents use such resources and what they think about them over time. The goal of this feasibility study was to determine whether parents can take up and effectively implement simple strategies designed to assist parents in cultivating the specific character strengths of empathy, gratitude, and diligence in their children ages four to ten. Participants were 124 parents in the United States (90% female; 69% white) involved in a brief pilot study of nine parenting strategies, or three per strength area. The baseline survey included brief descriptions of the strategies and asked parents to choose one strategy they wanted to implement every week for a month. Parents chose to implement three of the gratitude and two of the diligence strategies the most. Upon completion of the baseline survey, parents were routed to their strategy online and emailed the strategy in PDF form. They were then sent a feedback survey every week for four weeks. Approximately 70% of the parents (n = 88) completed at least one feedback survey. Across all the strategies, feedback was overwhelmingly positive, most parents reported doing their strategy regularly and with fidelity, and their reported knowledge of building each character strength significantly increased from the baseline to final feedback survey. The majority of participants also said they intend to keep using their strategy and would recommend it to other parents. Taken together, findings are promising for regular implementation of strategies provided digitally or online. Findings also call for further research and improvement of strategies before focusing on scale and wide dissemination. Highlights: In selecting a strategy, parents prioritized its importance and their child's enjoyment over their own enjoyment or confidence with implementation. Over 90% of parents who responded indicated that they did their chosen strategy at least once each week. Over 80% of parents who responded reported following most or all the steps in their strategy and the number of steps provided were just right. Feedback about the strategies was overwhelmingly positive, although creative ways to spark more child engagement or motivation are needed. Parents reported significant positive changes in their perceived knowledge for developing all character strengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
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| Abstract: | There are a multitude of online tips, strategies, and general resources for parents to guide their children's development, but very little is known about the extent to which parents use such resources and what they think about them over time. The goal of this feasibility study was to determine whether parents can take up and effectively implement simple strategies designed to assist parents in cultivating the specific character strengths of empathy, gratitude, and diligence in their children ages four to ten. Participants were 124 parents in the United States (90% female; 69% white) involved in a brief pilot study of nine parenting strategies, or three per strength area. The baseline survey included brief descriptions of the strategies and asked parents to choose one strategy they wanted to implement every week for a month. Parents chose to implement three of the gratitude and two of the diligence strategies the most. Upon completion of the baseline survey, parents were routed to their strategy online and emailed the strategy in PDF form. They were then sent a feedback survey every week for four weeks. Approximately 70% of the parents (n = 88) completed at least one feedback survey. Across all the strategies, feedback was overwhelmingly positive, most parents reported doing their strategy regularly and with fidelity, and their reported knowledge of building each character strength significantly increased from the baseline to final feedback survey. The majority of participants also said they intend to keep using their strategy and would recommend it to other parents. Taken together, findings are promising for regular implementation of strategies provided digitally or online. Findings also call for further research and improvement of strategies before focusing on scale and wide dissemination. Highlights: In selecting a strategy, parents prioritized its importance and their child's enjoyment over their own enjoyment or confidence with implementation. Over 90% of parents who responded indicated that they did their chosen strategy at least once each week. Over 80% of parents who responded reported following most or all the steps in their strategy and the number of steps provided were just right. Feedback about the strategies was overwhelmingly positive, although creative ways to spark more child engagement or motivation are needed. Parents reported significant positive changes in their perceived knowledge for developing all character strengths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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| ISSN: | 10621024 |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s10826-025-03085-0 |
