Summer Camp: Enhancing Empathy Through Positive Behavior and Social and Emotional Learning

Abstract

Background: Summer camp is proposed as a context to enhance prosocial behavior. This context could be used to apply intervention programs, in addition to being a time of fun and conviviality. A camp-based intervention program to increase empathy was administered for adolescents at risk. Purpose: The aim of this study was to apply and evaluate a positive behavior and social and emotional learning (SEL) intervention on empathy. Methodology/Approach: This exploratory study was carried out with pre–post quantitative design, based on a single-group intervention, with 113 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years. Change in empathy was measured by means of a standardized test and participant observation. We used evidence-based interventions, drawing on the principles of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) and SEL approach. Findings/Conclusions: An intervention in positive behavior and SEL was useful in improving empathy in at-risk adolescents. The enhancement was noticeable in both cognitive and emotional empathy, more specifically in the constructs of perspective taking and empathic concern. Implications: Summer camps might be considered an appropriate setting for interventions with at-risk adolescents.

Comparing Three Overnight Summer Camp Experiences for Marginalized Middle School Students: Negative, Neutral, and Positive Results

“…For instance, there was a big difference in effects for Black and Latinx students in Norton and Watt’s (2014) study, and variation in outcomes was not explained in this study or could not be found in any other related research. Similarly, within the Carpio de los Pinos et al (2020) study, there was a wide range of results across DA (i.e., effects ranging from .00 to .41) and the reason for the range of outcomes was not examined. Furthermore, the review by Gutman and Schoon (2015) shows that the effect sizes for outdoor adventure programs ranged from .18 to .46, but there was no explanation why effects varied across camps.…”

“…There were no significant changes in fantasy and emotional empathy. The average effect size across the six measures was .20 (Carpio de los Pinos et al, 2020).…”

“…However, the small amount of research on camps for marginalized middle school youth provides little empirical guidance on best practices. In this program evaluation, the evaluators collected data on camps with similar participants but three different structures: experiential education camp (EEC; similar to Norton & Watt, 2014), primarily recreational camp (RC), and an integrated didactic and experiential camp (IC; similar to Carpio de los Pinos et al, 2020). The evaluators expected to find varying degrees of change in school attitudes, plan management, perseverance, teamwork, social skills, and SWB across three different types of camps.…”

The optimal application of empathy interventions to reduce antisocial behaviour and crime: a review of the literature

“…Numerous empathy interventions have been carried out with general populations in non-criminological contexts and have proved successful in all age groups. Various promotional, prevention and intervention programmes involving children (Grazzani et al, 2016;Wu et al, 2020), adolescents (Carpio de los Pinos et al, 2020;Ingram et al, 2019) and adults (Leppma & Young, 2016;Romero-Martinez et al, 2016a) have produced significant increases in empathy with a variety of methodologies including teaching, interactive games and mindfulness programmes. Fewer offender empathy programmes have been administered and with various levels of success.…”

“…SEL programmes are designed to help participants to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to understand and manage emotions (Dusenbury et al, 2015) and to apply them as required in diverse daily situations (Bertrand et al, 2018). For example, Carpio de los Pinos et al (2020) evidence that an SEL summer camp facilitated empathy development in adolescents at-risk for social and emotional problems resultant from negative family circumstances. In another study, a CASEL programme that focused on visual arts and music found significant gains in social awareness and empathy compared to a control group (Mogro-Wilson & Tredinnick, 2020).…”