Cultivating Compassion in Primary School Youth: A Qualitative Analysis Open Access

Abstract

Introduction: Compassion is cultivating not just the feelings of empathy, but the actions motivated by the ability to understand the feelings of others. Compassion cultivation is associated with positive health outcomes, but most studies have only focused on adult populations. There has been a shift to focus on K-12 schools as it is a crucial developmental stage that offers larger intervention reach. Compassion cultivation programs specifically targeting adolescents can help to establish a set of tools to combat struggles in emotional and behavioral health and be instrumental to the overall health and well-being of individuals. With this knowledge, a collaborative endeavor between Children in Crossfire and The Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics was implemented to produce an eight-week intervention where students learned lessons of cultivating compassion and developmental education training.

 

Objective: This study investigates how training primary school youth in cultivating compassion can influence how their personal understandings of compassion evolve. The study looks to see how compassion training can influence students and note the subtle changes they may be experiencing when thinking about compassion in regards to themselves, others, and the idea of sharing common humanity.

 

Methods: The primary researcher used qualitative methods to conduct a secondary data analysis on the baseline, midpoint, and end line worksheet questionnaires. The researcher utilized techniques to examine the questionnaire data using three main phases: 1) code and codebook development, 2) the application of codes, and 3) thematic data analysis.

 

Results: The students showed subtle shifts in language that highlight the idea that lessons of compassion had started to be understood. The results show that children at this age can benefit from learning and understanding compassion for themselves, others, and people around the world.

 

Conclusion: The findings in this study are consistent with prior studies suggesting that while compassion cultivation is important, there need to be better measures to effectively measure the changes and how that affects overall health and well-being. This study can contribute to the development and eventual validation of measures that can be used to assess what impact compassion training has on young children.

Table of Contents

Definitions of Common Terms...................................................................................................... i

Background and Review of the Literature....................................................................................... 1

What is Compassion?................................................................................................................. 1

Compassion May Be Essential for Individual Health and Well-Being.............................................. 6

Focusing on K-12 Students......................................................................................................... 8

Cultivating Compassion in Educational Programs........................................................................ 11

Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 13

Introduction............................................................................................................................... 14

Methods..................................................................................................................................... 17

Setting and Population................................................................................................................ 17

Study Ethics and Informed Consent.............................................................................................. 19

Research Methods and Sample..................................................................................................... 19

Measures.................................................................................................................................... 20

Data Management and Analysis.................................................................................................... 21

Results........................................................................................................................................ 23

Compassion for Others................................................................................................................. 23

Self-Compassion.......................................................................................................................... 26

Compassionate World................................................................................................................... 30

Changemaker Ability.................................................................................................................... 34

Inductive Themes......................................................................................................................... 36

Discussion................................................................................................................................... 38

Well-Being................................................................................................................................... 38

Confidence................................................................................................................................... 39

Language and Behavior................................................................................................................. 40

Limitations.................................................................................................................................. 40

Significance to Public Health......................................................................................................... 41

Conclusion................................................................................................................................... 42

References................................................................................................................................... 43

Appendices.................................................................................................................................. 48

Appendix 1. Pre, Mid, and Post Test Qualitative Survey.................................................................... 48

Appendix 2. Qualitative Codebook.................................................................................................. 49

Appendix 3. Tables of Compassionate World Responses.................................................................... 53

About this Master's Thesis

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School	Rollins School of Public Health
Department	Hubert Department of Global Health
Degree	M.P.H.
Submission	Master's Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Health Sciences, Public Health
Keyword	compassion-training compassion compassion cultivation youth school
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Dabney Evans, Ph.D., MPH, Emory University
Committee Members	Tyralynn Frazier, Ph.D., MPH, Emory University

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