Promoting radical empathy: Changes in empathy and perspective taking at a youth summer camp that centers restorative practices

• Published date: 01 December 2024
• Author: Christine E. Merrilees,Bradley C. Taber‐Thomas,Madeline Klotz
• Date: 01 December 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/crq.21445

RESEARCH NOTE

Promoting radical empathy: Changes in

empathy and perspective taking at a youth

summer camp that centers restorative practices

Christine E. Merrilees

1

| Bradley C. Taber-Thomas

1

|

Madeline Klotz

2

1

State University of New York at

Geneseo, Geneseo, New York, USA

2

Michigan State University, East Lansing,

Michigan, USA

Correspondence

Christine E. Merrilees, SUNY Geneseo,

Psychology Department, 1 College Circle,

Geneseo, NY 14454, USA.

Email: merrilees@geneseo.edu

Abstract

Empathy is crucial to promoting positive intergroup

relations; research suggests engaging in restorative

practices, autonomy granting, and creativity support

empathy development. The current study uses a daily

diary to evaluate changes in empathy, creativity, feeling

in control/empowered in a small sample (N=41) of

adolescents during a two-week session of summer

camp that centers restorative practices. The results sug-

gest participants increase significantly in emotional

empathy, perspective taking, and creativity during their

time at camp. The results also suggest that on days par-

ticipants feel more in control and have expressed more

creativity, they report more empathy and perspective

taking. These findings provide important evidence

using intensive longitudinal data that youth program-

ming that centers restorative practices, autonomy sup-

port, and creativity may support empathy development.

1|INTRODUCTION

Recognizing the vital role that youth play in sustainable peace building efforts, there is emerg-

ing interest in understanding how and under what conditions youth develop prosocial skills

and inclusive attitudes and behaviors. The developmental peace building model for children

and youth (DPBM; Taylor, 2020) outlines the importance of working across group lines for

young people to establish practices of peace building at an early age. Within this model, empa-

thy is a key psychological variable in promoting positive intergroup relations (Pettigrew &

Received: 17 January 2023 Revised: 20 March 2024 Accepted: 12 July 2024

DOI: 10.1002/crq.21445

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