26 June 2012 A three-year trial of a ‘culturally-grounded’ prevention program in 12 Chicago schools has highlighted the value of emotional education as a key to reducing violence and delinquency.
The researchers found that children who participated in the Aban Aya program, in general became emotionally more responsive to others than the children who were allocated to the alternative program, and that the increase in this form of empathy was related to decreases in violent behavior over time.
..The findings also suggest that it’s possible to make children more empathetic – a hopeful sign for those concerned about violence.
