UNIVERSITY

PARK, Pa. – A Penn State researcher has a major role in a $3.3 million

federal grant award to study the impact of MindUp, an early-learning

program aimed at improving children’s readiness for kindergarten and

later grades.

MindUp is designed to help children develop social-emotional and

self-regulation skills, including learning how to manage their emotions,

get along and cooperate with others, focus their attention, follow

directions and be persistent at completing tasks.

Robert Roeser, professor of human development and family studies and

Bennett Pierce Professor of Caring and Compassion, and

thePEACE (Promoting Empathy Awareness and Compassion in

Education) program in the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center

(PRC) at Penn State, will partner with Andrew Mashburn, psychology

professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Portland State

University and lead investigator, to study MindUp. The MindUp program

was started by actress Goldie Hawn’s foundation.

The investigators will be testing the impacts of the MindUP program

on the cultivation of self-regulation skills through mindfulness-based,

social-emotional learning during the preschool years (ages 3-4). The

study will compare the short and long-term effects young children who

participate in the MindUP program to those who do not participate in it

in preschool.

Specifically, the investigators will look at children’s

self-regulation, and the longer-term effects on the quality of their

adjustment following their transition to kindergarten.

“This transition to formal schooling is a key ‘window of opportunity’

for providing enrichment and preventing behavioral and academic

problems that can cast a long shadow on a child’s school career,” Roeser

said. “This is especially true for young children who are

socioeconomically disadvantaged, and who may not have access to such

enrichment opportunities. Examining the impacts on such children is a

key aim of the study.”

The PEACE program in the PRC seeks to promote health and well-being

in children, youth and families through the scientific understanding and

promotion of awareness, compassion and empathy. The program includes

faculty, research associates and students whose work focuses on

developing a strong multidisciplinary science in this emerging area.

“The PEACE program in the PRC at Penn State is excited to partner

with our colleagues at Portland State to conduct this ground-breaking

study,” Roeser said.

The study will be conducted within three large counties in the

Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area, and the sample will comprise

classrooms operating within three types of center-based, licensed pre-K

programs — publicly-funded, community not-for-profit, and small

for-profit — that serve large numbers of four-year-old children from

economically-disadvantaged backgrounds who speak Spanish and/or English

as their primary language.