Research + Initiatives

Parents are inundated with strategies that seek to promote positive behaviors in children. Yet remarkably little is known about basic, crucial questions related to the implementation and impact of these strategies.

Making Caring Common is in the early stages of piloting and assessing a variety of engaging activities, practices, and routines designed to promote empathy, gratitude, and diligence in children ages three- to 13-years-old in the United States. We will be looking at differences in strategy selection, implementation, and impact by gender, race, ethnicity, class, and child-raising priorities of the parents and primary caregivers across who participate.

During the 2018-2019 academic year, our team is focused on bringing together experts in the field, expanding our network of aligned organizations, developing and adapting strategies, and testing distribution approaches. If your organization is interested in learning more, please email Alison Cashin at alison_cashin@gse.harvard.edu.

Research, ProgramAlexis DitkowskyOctober 29, 2018Families

Empathy in Schools Research Initiative

Help us test empathy-based approaches in your school.

We know that educators want to help students become more empathic and caring but often lack strategies they can implement with ease, flexibility, and regularity.

As part of our Empathy in Schools Initiative, teachers, counselors, and other interested school staff test empathy-based approaches grounded in our work with more than 170 schools over the last four years. If you are an educator in elementary, middle, or high school, we encourage you to join today!

Research, Empathy, Topic Bias BullyingAlexis DitkowskyOctober 1, 2018Schools

Making Caring Common leads a number of research projects and initiatives. From working directly with schools and teachers to spearheading national campaigns, we strive to make caring more common in all of our programming.