Promoting prosocial behaviours in pre-schoolers and young school children: developing new classroom techniques for promoting cooperation and helpfulne

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Humans appear exceptional in their ability to respond to the needs of their conspecifics, very early in development. Studies show, however, that with age, children become more discriminating regarding the targets of their altruistic acts and more selective in their prosocial behaviours. Beyond describing this development, an important field that emerges in current literature concerns the cognitive factors that modulate cooperation and helpfulness in children. It has been proposed that short-term mental training based on mindfulness techniques can increase prosociality. The effect has been shown in adults and some evidence exists in children, however these measured prosociality in an indirect way (self-reports, teacher reports) or focused on the overall effects of mental training on cognitive functioning. The project's aim will be to methodically measure the effects of short-term mindfulness training on actual prosocial behaviour in 4-8-year-old children. The data obtained will be used to develop guidelines for practices and training programs that promote prosocial behaviours in children and in society on the longer term.