THE ESSENTIAL
- Kindness has a positive impact on overall brain health
- As a family, practicing kindness increases children’s empathy and parents’ resilience
Being nice helps keep your brain healthy, according to a study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
Researchers and clinicians from the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas sought to understand whether an online kindness training program would improve preschoolers’ prosocial behaviors and their parents’ resilience during the coronavirus pandemic. COVID-19 and the finding is clear: parents are more resilient and preschoolers are more empathetic after kindness training. In psychology, resilience is an individual’s ability to build and live satisfactorily despite traumatic circumstances.
Practical and healthy interactions
The researchers used an adaptation of the program from the Children’s Kindness Network founded by Ted Drier, about 38 mothers and their children aged 3 to 5. The program, titled “Kind Minds with Moozie”, has five short modules in which a digital cow (“Moozie”) describes creative exercises that parents can do with their children to teach them about kindness.
“Our goal is to encourage parents to engage in hands-on, brain-healthy interactions with their children to help them better understand each other, especially in times of stress,” said Maria Johnson, director of Youth & Family Innovations. “Research shows that kindness is a powerful potentiator of dynamic social engagement, which in turn is a critical component of overall brain health.”
Surprisingly, the researchers found that the children’s empathy levels remained below average despite the noticeable improvement seen after training. This could be because COVID-19 safety measures have severely limited children’s normal social and emotional learning.
Kindness influences cognitive function
To determine how kindness influences brain health, the team asked parents to survey their own resilience and report on their children’s empathy before and after the training program. Resilience and empathy both involve cognitive skills such as the ability to react to stressors or consider different perspectives. Their results therefore support the idea that kindness can influence cognitive function and overall brain health.
practice kindness
Parents can learn simple strategies to practice kindness effectively, right at home, to create a healthy environment for their children’s brains. “In times of stress, taking a moment to practice kindness for yourself and model it for your children can build your own resilience and improve your children’s prosocial behaviors,” said Julie Fratantoni, PhD student, operations manager for The Brain Health Project. “Don’t underestimate the power of kindness, because it can ultimately change and shape brain health.”
While in 2021 acts of kindness have increased 21% worldwidethis new study is part of a welcome positive dynamic!