Three Things to Know
To assess the effectiveness of an animal-themed humane education program in fostering student empathy, researchers evaluated ACTAsia’s Caring for Life program among first graders in China.
Participants demonstrated significantly elevated self-reported empathy compared to non-participants, with a particularly pronounced effect on affective empathy, a key predictor of prosocial behavior.
Notably, students with lower initial empathy scores exhibited the greatest gains, suggesting that those with the highest need for empathy development may benefit most.
For Dog Welfare Practitioners
Consistent with another study done in Hong Kong, this study demonstrated the positive impact of humane education on children. Dog welfare organizations possess a distinct advantage in delivering animal-themed youth programs due to their direct access to dogs. Research indicates that these programs can effectively target children aged 5 to 6, facilitating early empathy development.
Furthermore, dog welfare organizations should prioritize robust impact assessment. This includes exploring the use of standardized tools, such as the Basic Empathy Scale, to accurately measure program effectiveness.
The Full Picture
Empathy—commonly defined as the ability to understand and share another’s emotional state—has two main components: cognitive empathy (recognizing others’ emotions) and affective empathy (feeling others’ emotions). Though related, these components develop differently and may have distinct neural bases. Affective empathy typically emerges in infancy and is more closely linked to prosocial behaviors such as altruism and cooperation, while cognitive empathy develops later, alongside cognitive skills like theory of mind.
Empathy development is influenced by social interactions and can be fostered through educational programs. School-based programs have shown promise, especially those incorporating mindfulness or social-emotional learning. A growing area of interest is whether animal-themed or animal-based programs can promote empathy in children.
This study, “Learning to care: An in-school humane education program improves affective and cognitive empathy among lower-elementary students”, seeks to examine whether an animal- and nature-based education program in China can improve first-grade students’ self-reported cognitive and affective empathy toward humans.
Study Methods
The Caring for Life Program
ACTAsia’s Caring for Life program aims to foster critical thinking, compassion, and responsibility toward animals, people, and the environment in children aged 5–12. The curriculum includes ten lessons per grade level, with topics spanning social welfare, animal welfare, and environmental issues, with a focus on interdependence and the “One Health” concept.
Teachers received 16 hours of training before delivering the program. Students assigned to the experimental group completed the Caring for Life curriculum over one academic year, with lessons delivered in both fall and spring semesters. Control group students continued with their usual curriculum.
Assessment
Children’s empathy was assessed using the Chinese version of the Basic Empathy Scale (BES), which measures cognitive and affective empathy, with higher BES scores indicating greater empathy. All students completed the BES one week before (pre-test) and one week after (post-test) the Caring for Life program.
Study Results
A total of 605 students participated at the start (275 in the control group, 330 in the experimental group) and 593 at posttest, with only a small attrition rate (1.98%). The students were from 23 classes across six schools in four cities in eastern China. The average class size was 26 students, and the sample was evenly split between boys and girls (51% male, 49% female), aged 5 to 6.
Effect of the Humane Education Program
The study found that Chinese first graders who participated in the Caring for Life humane education program for a full academic year showed significantly higher self-reported empathy — both affective and cognitive — compared to peers who did not participate. The program had a particularly strong effect on affective empathy, which is closely linked to prosocial behavior.
| Affective Empathy | Cognitive Empathy | |||
| Group | Pretest | Posttest | Pretest | Posttest |
| Control Group Total | −0.105 | 0.219 | 0.085 | −0.034 |
| Experimental Group Total | −0.369 | 0.288 | −0.022 | −0.021 |
- Affective Empathy: All students improved over time, but experimental group students (those in the program) showed significantly greater gains.
- Cognitive Empathy: Control group students’ scores declined, while the experimental group maintained their levels. This suggests a medium to large protective effect of the program on cognitive empathy.
Importantly, children who started with lower empathy scores showed the most growth — especially in affective empathy — suggesting that those who need empathy development the most may benefit the most from such programs. However, more research is needed to explore this effect further.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that well-designed, animal-based educational content can effectively nurture empathy in young children and may be especially beneficial in early education. The large sample size and diversity of locations (four cities) support the program’s potential scalability, particularly in urban East Asian settings.
Miscellaneous
Data From Study:
Owned Dogs > What Dogs Bring > Infants & Children
Year of Publication:
2023
External Link:
William Ellery Samuels, Nnenna Onuoha-Jackson, Learning to care: An in-school humane education program improves affective and cognitive empathy among lower-elementary students, International Journal of Educational Research Open, Volume 5, 2023, 100292, ISSN 2666-3740, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2023.100292