Evaluating the application of a play-based intervention on emotion comprehension, regulation and prosocial behaviours in young children in Hong Kong

Emotions are the core of human survival and development. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the need for social-emotional programmes that support young children’s emotion comprehension, regulation and prosocial skills. Therefore, a community-based, play-focused programme was devised using the process model of emotion regulation encapsulated in the ‘bioecological framework’, which highlights the roles of the child and their caregivers (i.e., parents and teachers) and how these microsystems interact to influence the child’s development. The study focused on young children between 3 and 6 years old and their parents, with the support of teachers. This study aimed to evaluate the programme’s potential effects on children’s emotion comprehension, emotion regulation, and prosocial behaviours, which are key to social-emotional development, learning, and well-being. The programme targeted 285 participants (parents=102; teachers=14; children=169), with data being collected using mixed evaluation methods at each of the three phases. The phases were categorised as follows: 1) Phase I, which involved parent and teacher (caregiver) insights on the socialisation of social-emotional behaviours in young children through focus group interviews; 2) Phase II, which entailed designing and developing a play-based training package guided by caregivers’ insights and cooperative inquiry in the team; and 3) Phase III, which entailed implementation and evaluation of the programme in both home and school settings over six months through assessments, reports and participation. Results suggested that such a programme could benefit young children’s social-emotional competencies from an early age with the potential for positive outcomes in emotion comprehension, regulation and prosocial behaviours, which may, in turn, influence the child’s ability to learn. Children’s language score was positively associated with increases in some social-emotional outcomes compared to parent participation. These findings highlight the potential for emotion regulation-focused training and home-school collaboration to ensure child-directed programme sustainability and feasibility. Cultural and contextual adaptations and parent and teacher inclusiveness were vital considerations when implementing community-based programmes for young children.