How, when and why abilities go social: researching children's empathy and prosocial behaviors in context.

Introduction: The current paper undertakes interdisciplinary research on empathy in children by combining insights and methodological tools from the fields of psychology, education and anthropology. The researchers aim to map how children's individual empathic abilities studied on a cognitive level do or do not coincide with their empathic expressions as part of group dynamics in daily life at the classroom level. Method: We combined qualitative and quantitative methods within three different classrooms at three different schools. In total, 77 children aged between 9 to 12 years participated. Results: The results indicate how such an interdisciplinary approach can provide unique insights. Through the integration of data from our different research tools we could reveal the interplay between different levels. More specifically this meant showing the possible influence of rule-based prosocial behaviors versus empathy based prosocial behaviors, the interplay between community empathic abilities and individual empathic abilities, and the role of peer culture and school culture. Discussion: These insights can be seen as encouragement toward a research approach that extends beyond the single disciplinary field in social science research.

Who participates in computer science education studies? A literature review on K-12 subjects.

Computer science education (CSEd) research within K-12 makes extensive use of empirical studies in which children participate. Insight in the demographics of these children is important for the purpose of understanding the representativeness of the populations included. This literature review studies the demographics of subjects included in K-12 CSEd studies. We have manually inspected the proceedings of three of the main international CSEd conferences: SIGCSE, ITiCSE and ICER, of five years (2014-2018), and selected all papers pertaining to K-12 CSEd experiments. This led to a sample of 134 papers describing 143 studies. We manually read these papers to determine the demographic information that was reported on, investigating the following categories: age/grade, gender, race/ethnic background, location, prior computer science experience, socio-economic status (SES), and disability. Our findings show that children from the United States, boys and children without computer science experience are included most frequently. Race and SES are frequently not reported on, and for race as well as for disabilities there appears a tendency to report these categories only when they deviate from the majority. Further, for several demographic categories different criteria are used to determine them. Finally, most studies take place within schools. These insights can be valuable to correctly interpret current knowledge from K-12 CSEd research, and furthermore can be helpful in developing standards for consistent collection and reporting of demographic information in this community.

A Comparison of Children's Ability to Read Children's and Adults' Mental States in an Adaptation of the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Task.

The ability to read mental states from subtle facial cues is an important part of Theory of Mind, which can contribute to children's daily life social functioning. Mental state reading performance is influenced by the specific interactions in which it is applied; familiarity with characteristics of these interactions (such as the person) can enhance performance. The aim of this research is to gain insight in this context effect for mental state reading in children, assessed with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes (RME) task that originally consists of pictures of adults' eyes. Because of differences between children and adults in roles, development and frequency of interaction, children are more familiar with mental state reading of other children. It can therefore be expected that children's mental state reading depends on whether this is assessed with children's or adults' eyes. A new 14 item version of the RME for children was constructed with pictures of children instead of adults (study 1). This task was used and compared to the original child RME in 6-10 year olds (N = 718, study 2) and 8-14 year olds (N = 182, study 3). Children in both groups performed better on the new RME than on the original RME. Item level findings of the new RME were in line with previous findings on the task and test re-test reliability (in a subgroup of older children, n = 95) was adequate (0.47). This suggests that the RME with children's eyes can assess children's daily life mental state reading and supplement existing ToM tasks.

A participatory model of the paradox of primary care.

PURPOSE: The paradox of primary care is the observation that primary care is associated with apparently low levels of evidence-based care for individual diseases, but systems based on primary care have healthier populations, use fewer resources, and have less health inequality. The purpose of this article is to explore, from a complex systems perspective, mechanisms that might account for the effects of primary care beyond disease-specific care. METHODS: In an 8-session, participatory group model-building process, patient, caregiver, and primary care clinician community stakeholders worked with academic investigators to develop and refine an agent-based computer simulation model to test hypotheses about mechanisms by which features of primary care could affect health and health equity. RESULTS: In the resulting model, patients are at risk for acute illness, acute life-changing illness, chronic illness, and mental illness. Patients have changeable health behaviors and care-seeking tendencies that relate to their living in advantaged or disadvantaged neighborhoods. There are 2 types of care available to patients: primary and specialty. Primary care in the model is less effective than specialty care in treating single diseases, but it has the ability to treat multiple diseases at once. Primary care also can provide disease prevention visits, help patients improve their health behaviors, refer to specialty care, and develop relationships with patients that cause them to lower their threshold for seeking care. In a model run with primary care features turned off, primary care patients have poorer health. In a model run with all primary care features turned on, their conjoint effect leads to better population health for patients who seek primary care, with the primary care effect being particularly pronounced for patients who are disadvantaged and patients with multiple chronic conditions. Primary care leads to more total health care visits that are due to more disease prevention visits, but there are reduced illness visits among people in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Supplemental appendices provide a working version of the model and worksheets that allow readers to run their own experiments that vary model parameters. CONCLUSION: This simulation model provides insights into possible mechanisms for the paradox of primary care and shows how participatory group model building can be used to evaluate hypotheses about the behavior of such complex systems as primary health care and population health.

Community-based research in AIDS-service organizations: what helps and what doesn't?

BACKGROUND: Community-based research (CBR) approaches have become commonplace in many North American HIV communities. In many large urban centers, AIDS-service organizations (ASOs) have become active research hubs, advocating for research dollars in community settings. While ASOs have historically integrated local knowledge into their prevention, care and advocacy initiatives, many are now initiating or collaborating in research which addresses emerging issues encountered in practice with clients. OBJECTIVES: To investigate barriers and facilitating factors for ASO engagement in CBR. METHODS: We conducted a survey (n=39) and one-on-one semi-structured telephone interviews (n=25) with executive directors and CBR coordinators from ASOs in Ontario, Canada. The survey queried four major areas of interest (organizational demographics, ASO CBR activities, potential barriers and facilitators for CBR engagement, and what roles stakeholders play in CBR initiatives). The interviews focused on exploring these issues in greater depth as well as understanding barriers and facilitating factors to people living with HIV/AIDS engaging in CBR. RESULTS: ASOs in Ontario are moderately supportive of CBR in their organizations. However, our survey and one-on-one interviews indicate that funding and organizational resources are both important barriers and facilitators to ASO involvement in CBR projects. Attaining access to research ethics boards and concerns that CBR results will not be acted upon also emerged as barriers to CBR, particularly once funds and organizational resources have been attained. Initiatives designed to enhance the skills of research team members emerged as an another important facilitator. CONCLUSION: Increasing emphasis from program funders on more rigorous evaluation and accountability, coupled with pull from increasingly empowered communities demanding much more active roles in setting research agendas, means that CBR is likely here to stay. Attending to barriers and facilitators will help with enhanced ASO engagement in CBR.