NCT06174467

Learning for Hearts and Minds in Elementary School

Learning for Hearts and Minds (ACM) in Elementary School Students From Public Schools: a Randomized Controlled Trial on Socio-emotional Skills and Brain Functioning

• Status: Unknown
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 600 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 8 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

ABSTRACT- Introduction: Skills such as recognizing and managing emotions, developing empathy, building cooperative relationships, solving problems effectively and obtaining communication skills have gained importance in several schools and this has been made possible by Socio-Emotional Learning (SEL). Robust studies in this area in Latin America are lacking, and what happens in the brain and in our general physiology, from trainings related to SEL, needs to be better understood. Objectives: To assess the effects of Learning for Hearts and Minds Training (TACM) on positive and negative affect, empathy and compassion, emotional expression, self-compassion, life satisfaction, sense of community in the classroom, academic goals, school performance, brain activity and heart rate variability in 4th and 5th year elementary school students. Methods: This is a randomized controlled trial in clusters with cross-over, in approximately 600 students. By the end of the first semester, one group of students will receive the TACM and the other will be a waiting control group. In the second semester, the latter will receive the TACM and the former will continue the TACM practices. The groups will be evaluated in 5 moments during the year. A classroom will be randomly assigned to undergo an assessment of brain activity and cardiac variability to assess their ability to regulate emotions. Students, parents and teachers will be drawn for a qualitative interview at the end of the academic semesters about the effects of TACM.

Conditions

• Social Emotional Learning

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	SEELearning Training	This group will receive the Learning Training for Hearts and Minds and will be submitted to assessments and questionnaires that measure the improvement of well-being, reduction of stress and literacy in the contents and human values taught in the training. The program aims to increase participants' awareness, compassion and engagement. Compassion refers to cultivating a way of relating to oneself, others and humanity through kindness, empathy and genuine care for the happiness and suffering of these individuals. Awareness refers to cultivating a detailed, first-person understanding of thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
BEHAVIORAL	Waiting list group of the intervention	The group will remain on a waiting list and will respond to questionnaires about well-being and other items before receiving the training and, in the second semester, during the period in which it will receive the training

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-01-10
• Primary completion: 2024-12-17
• Completion: 2024-12-20
• First posted: 2023-12-18
• Last updated: 2024-02-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Brazil