This qualitative research study aims to examine the potential of the commercially available serious game, Spiritfarer. The study focuses on the game's unique approach to serious themes and its ability to facilitate discussions about grief. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze lived experience descriptions from 54 participants. Findings…

Establishing and building rapport is a crucial aspect of research interviews with children and families. With interviews increasingly conducted via online platforms, such as Teams and Zoom, researchers are challenged to reflect on relational aspects, such as building rapport, when using this medium and how approaches may need to be nuanced. This…

Purpose: This study aims to consider the role of emotions, especially those related to empathy, in promoting a more humane education that enables students to reach out across kinship chasms to promote the development of communities predicated on a shared value on mutual respect. This attention to empathy includes a review of the rational basis for…

In this study, we investigated whether a colourful design would foster the aesthetic appreciation of Chinese classic poetry, and the role of learners' empathy trait in this process. Middle school students (N = 159) were assigned to one of four conditions in a 2 (Colour Design: Colourful vs. Grayscale) × 2 (Empathy Trait: High vs. Low)…

The self-oriented and other-oriented empathy dimensions may have different relationships with playfulness. However, a scarcity of research exists on the association between empathy and playfulness. The present research contained two studies. Parents of 386 preschoolers (M[subscript age] = 4.89, SD[subscript age] = 0.79) attended Study 1, and…

This article explores the role of text and reader characteristics in character engagement experiences. In an online study, participants completed several self-report and behavioral measures of social-cognitive abilities and read two literary narratives in which the presence of linguistic viewpoint markers was varied using a highly controlled…

The relationship between reading and well-being is gaining increasing interest among those working in research, policy and practice, as we seek to better understand if, and how, reading books supports wellbeing. To date, the majority of research has focused on children and young people, neglecting to consider the well-being benefits that reading…

By analyzing the "ritual of purification" presented on stage in Nao Bustamante's performance "Indigurrito," I show how identity categories influence different, and at times contradictory, readings of enactments of power in ways that enhance or obstruct an empathic response. The methodological lens for this article borrows from…

The development of emotional competence is an important milestone during early childhood. Beyond early experience within the family, the (preschool) classroom is a relevant socialisation context, and both teachers and peers may contribute to children's emotion-related outcomes. Tracking changes in the emotion regulation competence of N = 173…

Recent evidence suggests that, contrary to traditional views, empathy difficulties may not be a core feature of autism; but are rather due to co-occurring alexithymia. Empathy, alexithymia and autistic traits have yet to be examined concurrently in children. Therefore, we examined the co-occurrence of empathy difficulties and alexithymia in 59…

The aim was to investigate the mediating role of emotional regulation and emotional expression in the relationship between autistic traits and empathy in Saudi students. Participants were undergraduate students at Umm Al-Qura University. A total of 398 questionnaires were sent out, and 260 valid questionnaires were received. Descriptive statistics…

Impaired ability to develop trusting relationships, self-dysregulation, poor emotional regulation, poor self valuation, and relational sensitivity are key challenges for survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse. These increase the risk of ruptures in the therapeutic relationship and dropouts. Nevertheless, there is little evidence of the role of…

Previous research indicates that youth exhibiting antisocial behavior are at risk for utilizing a disproportionate amount of health services compared to youth without these problems. The present study investigates whether being processed by the juvenile justice system and showing callous-unemotional (CU) traits independently predict health service…

Research Findings: Empathy plays an important role in children's early social-emotional development. However, there are not many instruments available for measuring the different aspects/levels of empathy in preschool children. Moreover, few studies examined the validity of the existing measures for empathy in Chinese children. The present study…

Many autistics report being distressed by eye contact, but eye-tracking studies suggest that eye contact is associated with hypo-arousal rather than hyper-arousal in autism. Within a live face-to-face paradigm combining a wearable eye-tracker with electrodermal activity sensors, 80 adults (40 autistics) defined words in front of an experimenter…