• Out-of-School Activities Study
• The Healthy Teacher Study
• Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI)
• The “Safe Spaces” Program Research Study

Project Title: Out-of-School Activities Study

Research Team: Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, Denise Buote, Angela Jaramillo, Kristen Foulkes (UBC), Lina Sweiss, Kim Thomson, Pippa Rowcliffe, Jeff Calbick, Jenny Cleathero, (United Way of the Lower Mainland)
Location: Lower Mainland (Vancouver, Coquitlam, Richmond, New Westminster, Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows, Burnaby, Surrey, North Vancouver).
Age Group: Middle childhood (age 9-12)

Description: The Out-of-School Activities study was a collaborative project between UBC and the United Way of the Lower Mainland investigating how children spend their time after school. This project was undertaken in an effort to fill a gap in the literature about what children experience in the years leading up to adolescence - not just how they fare during adolescence. We surveyed 1,417 children in grades 4-7 from a random sample of schools across the Lower Mainland about how they feel about themselves, their families, their peers, their schools, and neighbourhoods. We examined the links between how children spent their after school time, their relationships with parents and adults in schools and the community, and their social emotional health and overall well-being. Analyses from this project are still ongoing.

Funding: This study was made possible by a variety of organizations and services throughout BC.

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Project Title: The Healthy Teacher Study

Research Team: Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, Robert Roeser, Kimberly Thomson, and Eva Oberle (UBC)
Location: Public Schools of the Vancouver School Board
Age Group: Elementary and High School Teachers

Description: The Healthy Teacher Study is a research project for evaluating a mindfulness based stress reduction program for full-time teachers (Stress Management and Stress Reduction Training, SMART). The project was undertaken to investigate the impact of attending the 12-week program on attendees' biomarkers of stress, cognitive abilities, and self-reported measures of well-being and coping with students. We randomly assigned 60 teachers to either attend the program or stay on a waitlist. Pretest and posttest measures were assessed, and we are about to collect participants' 3-month follow-up data.

Funding: This study was made possible through funding by the Fetzer Institute, and the Mind and Life Institute

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Project Title: Middle Years Development Instrument (MDI)

Research Team: Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, Dr. Clyde Hertzman, Dr. Shelley Hymel, Lina Sweiss (RA), Martin Guhn (RA), Anne Gadermann (RA), Angela Lee (RA), Dr. Lori Irwin, Gillian Corless
Location: Vancouver
Age Group: 9-year-olds (Grade 4)
Description: The MDI is a self-report survey that is completed by students in grades 4 to garner information about their lives inside and outside of school. To develop a survey that children during the middle-childhood years are able to use to record their perceptions of their own health and well-being, a research team comprised of university researchers and community members reviewed more than 500 measures assessing dimensions of child well-being. The survey uses a developmental assets/strengths-based approach to assess 5 dimensions of children’s psychological and social lives. The five dimensions include Social and Emotional Development, Connectedness, School Experiences, Physical Health and Well-Being, and Constructive Use of Time.

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Project Title: The “Safe Spaces” Program Research Study

Research Team: (1) University Partners: Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl (University of British Columbia, UBC), Angela M. Jaramillo (University of British Columbia, UBC); and Dr. Michaela Gummerum (University of Plymouth); (2) Community Partners: Dianne Liscumb (Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre), and Sarah Chapman-Chen.
Location: Vancouver
Age Group: Preschool-aged children (age 3 to 5)

Description: The “Safe Spaces” program is a universal social emotional competence promotion program for preschool-aged children. The program, developed by Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre, focuses on teaching prosocial skills and emotion knowledge. It was piloted in one centre in Vancouver in 2001, and it is currently being implemented widely across BC. The project was undertaken to comprehensively evaluate the “Safe Spaces” program’s effectiveness. The evaluation includes both an implementation evaluation as well as an outcome evaluation that focuses on an exploration of the short-term and long-term effectiveness of the “Safe Spaces” Program in promoting young children’s social, emotional, and behavioural competencies.

Sponsors/Funders: Partnership between Westcoast Child Care Resource Centre and UBC and is part of a multi-disciplinary, academic-community partnership project, called The Consortium for Health, Intervention, Learning and Development (The CHILD Project). CHILD was originally funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada.

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Evaluation of the Roots of Empathy Program

Further information coming soon.

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Evaluation of the MindUp Program

Further information coming soon.

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