How Do Elementary Students Show Kindness to Others?

Kindness is sometimes dismissed as a simplistic virtue comprised of “being nice.” But how do kids think about kindness—and could understanding kindness help us to teach and promote kindness more effectively?

n a study recently published in the Journal of Positive Psychology, we found that children’s thinking about kindness encompasses a rich set of selfless, altruistic orientations that can benefit others, schools, and societies.

We explored the spectrum of children’s understandings of kindness by asking 320 fourth- and fifth-grade students from two school districts in British Colombia, Canada, to list the ways that they can show kindness to others. Our findings showed that many children described kindness in terms of generous (57% of children) and compassionate (43%) behaviors. 

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