PARENTS’ EMPATHIC SELF-EFFICACY AND CHILDREN’S SOCIO-EMOTIONAL LEARNING IN AN INTERVENTION FACILITATED BY A VIRTUAL ROBOT

The aim of this study is to examine the association between parents’ empathic self-efficacy and children’s socio-emotional learning. This study is part of ongoing international project aimed to evaluate the efficacy of an intervention aimed to promoting children’s socio-emotional learning, in which children were exposed to online small group activities facilitated by a virtual agent. Parent-reports of children’s social and emotional learning skills were assessed through the Social Skill Improvement System SEL Brief (SSIS SELb; Elliott et al., 2020) both in the pre- and post-test. The questionnaire is made of 20 total items measuring the five SEL competency domains as described by CASEL (2003), i.e., Self-Awareness, Self-Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills, and Responsible Decision Making. Parents’ empatic sel-efficacy was measured with the perceived ematic self-efficacy scale (PESE; Di Giunta et al., 2011). The PESE Scale is designed to assess individuals’ perceived capability to experience emotion from another’s perspective, to respond emotionally to others’ distress and misfortune, and to be sensitive to how one’s actions affect others’ feelings (Bandura et al., 2003; Caprara, Gerbino, & Delle Fratte, 2001). PESE has been shown to be positively correlated with empathy, sympathy, perspective taking (Ranfone, 2008), and prosociality (Bandura et al., 2003). Participants were Italian parents (77% mothers) of 63 children (48% boys). Parents were on average 45 years old (SD = 4.89); children were on average 9 years old (SD: 1.03). Comparing pre- and post-tests, It emerged a significant increase in the five children’s SEL competency domains as described by CASEL (2003). It also emerged a positive association between parental empathic self-efficacy beliefs and children’s socio-emotional learning. The results presented in this study are promising in showing the efficacy of the intervention aimed to promoting children’s socio-emotional learning, in which children were exposed to online small group activities facilitated by a virtual agent. In addition, this study shows the importance of parental socio-emotional competences in modeling their children’s correspondent skills.