Clinical trial NCT06210932: Social Emotional and Ethical Development (SEED) Video Curriculum
Official title: Effects of Social, Emotional and Ethical Development Curriculum (SEED) Video Intervention on Preschoolers: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Development, Child
Mindfulness
Keywords: social and emotional skills development
early childhood
Lead sponsor: Chinese University of Hong Kong
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2024-01-18
Enrollment: 160
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 3
Maximum age (years): 7
Standard ages: CHILD
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: The objectives of the present study are to(1)By implementing the SEED Program and using videos as an intervention, the research aims to enhance these critical skills in young children.(2)The study will be the first of its kind to utilize SEED videos as an intervention for pre-schoolers in Hong Kong.(3)If the intervention proves to be effective, the SEED video project can potentially serve as a pilot program for kindergartens in Hong Kong, introducing more children to the SEED Program and its benefits.

Detailed description: In today's Hong Kong climate of increased focus on children's academic achievement through spoon-fed education, this learning only emphasises children's literacy and subject knowledge. However, "spoon-fed" education is always divorced from the social context, it leads our new generation to be considered as not knowing how to get along with others, lacking emotional management skills, and lacking perseverance and resilience.

Children's social, emotional and moral development are as important as subject knowledge. It is found that children's social-emotional skills can predict their academic performance, more specifically children with higher levels of social-emotional competence show better academic performance, including higher literacy and math scores.

In Hong Kong, most kindergarten curricula are compiled based on the Education Bureau's Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guidelines. Few curricula focus on social, emotional and moral development. Therefore, Bodhi Love Foundation has launched the SEED (Social, Emotional, Ethical Development) Program recently. The SEED Program aims to foster the critical skills for the development of self-awareness, empathy and interconnectedness in young children.

In the post-COVID-19 era of the 21st century, online learning is convenient and students are accustomed to taking video classes at home. Hence, this study will develop a series of videos based on the SEED Program which will serve several purposes: (a) It will become the first study of using SEED video as an intervention for pre-schoolers in Hong Kong (b) It will contribute to our understanding of SEED Video as an intervention, its effect for pre-schooler (c) If the intervention is effective, the SEED video project can become a pilot project for Hong Kong kindergartens to expose more children to SEED.

This study will focus on students in a kindergarten in the North District of Hong Kong, and the results are planned to be expanded to include K2 and K3.

III. Identification of the research problem

1. Does the SEED (Social, Emotional, Ethical Development) video project increase children's social skills?
2. Does the SEED video project enhance the emotional management skills of children?
3. Does the SEED video project improve the executive function of children? IV. Literature Review The most widely used psychological experiments for assessing children's inhibitory has been using structured tests.

The marshmallow test is the most well-known method for assessing children's ability to self-control. In this test, a child is offered a choice between a small immediate reward, such as a marshmallow, or a larger delayed reward, such as two marshmallows, if they can wait for a certain period without eating the initial reward, they can receive the larger delayed reward.

Another widely used task of measuring executive function is the day-night task. In this task, children are required to say the opposite of what they see on the stimulus cards, for instance, say "night" when a white card with the sun is shown and say "day" when a black card with a moon is shown.

The experiments mentioned above were used in this study to achieve a more comprehensive assessment of executive functions in young children. In the marshmallow experiment, stickers will be used as rewards, and an additional component of sharing with others will be included to test children's social skills and willingness to share with others.

In addition, researchers conducted a study to investigate the effectiveness of a video-based social skills training program for developing pre-schoolers. They found that the use of videos is engaging and helpful in promoting social skill development.

V. Research Procedures

The participants in this research study will be K2-K3 pre-schoolers from a kindergarten in Hong Kong. The activities they will engage in include:

Pre-test: Before the intervention begins, the participants will undergo a pre-test to assess their baseline executive function.

Intervention: The participants will be divided into two groups: the intervention group and the control group. The participants will engage in a total of four weeks of intervention. The intervention sessions are conducted three times per week, there will be a total of 12 intervention sessions. The intervention group will receive a social, emotional, and ethical development video intervention. They will watch three videos per week for a total of four weeks. The videos will be designed to promote social, emotional, and ethical development. whereas the control group will receive a language enhancement video intervention.

Post-Test: After the intervention period, both the intervention group and the control group will undergo a post-test to evaluate any changes in their executive function.

Number of Sessions: The participants will engage in a total of four weeks of intervention. The intervention sessions are conducted three times per week, there will be a total of 12 intervention sessions.

Time Commitment: The total time commitment for each participant will depend on the duration of the intervention sessions. Each intervention session lasts approximately 10-12 minutes, the participants will need to allocate approximately 2-2.5 hours over the four-week period.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

- For children: aged 3-7 years old, understand Cantonese

- For parents: aged 18 years old or above, understand Cantonese

Exclusion Criteria:

Unable to understand Cantonese

Primary outcomes:
measure: Social Skills Improvement System-Rating Scales (Preschool Parents version) (SSIS - SEL)
timeFrame: 4th week
measure: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
timeFrame: 4th week
measure: Delay of Shared Gratification Task
timeFrame: 4th week
measure: Head-Toe-Knees-Shoulders task (HTKS)
timeFrame: 4th week
measure: Disappointing Gift Task
timeFrame: 4th week
measure: Children's Behavioral Questionnaire(CBQ) age 3-7
timeFrame: 4th week
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Hong Kong
country: Hong Kong
facility: Dept of Psychology, CUHK
Study officials:
affiliation: Chinese University of Hong Kong
name: Winnie WS Mak
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
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