The Pilot Study on the Effect of a Compassion-Based Program on Gifted Junior High School Students’ Emotional Styles, Self-Compassion, Empathy, and Well-Being

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of compassion-based programs on gifted students’ emotional style, self-compassion, empathy, and well-being. The study conducted a quasi-experimental study of 30 academically gifted junior high school students in the eighth grade in Taiwan. Seventeen students were in the experimental group, and 13 were in the control group. The study adopted an emotional style scale, a self-compassion scale, an empathy scale, and a well-being scale. Covariance analysis was used to analyze the data. The results found that the students in the experimental group scored significantly higher than the students in the control group on some subscales and total scores of four tests in part. Students also learned more about themselves, identified and adjusted cognitive patterns, communicative skills, and so on, based on their feedback. The results provide some suggestions about future curriculum design, instruction, and counseling based on positive psychology.

Keywords

• emotional style
• empathy
• self-compassion
• well-being
• compassion-based intervention program