In this randomized controlled trial the digital socio-emotional competence training Zirkus Empathico was tested in 74 Central European children (5.1(0.9) years; 34 females). The preregistered primary outcome was empathy, secondary outcomes included emotion recognition, prosocial behavior, behavioral problem reduction, and children’s neural sensitivity to facial expressions quantified with event-related potentials. Compared to controls, Zirkus Empathico participants showed increases in empathy (d = 0.28 [-0.17, 0.76]), emotion recognition (d = 0.57 [0.01, 1.06]), prosocial behavior (d = 0.51 [0.05, 0.99]) and reduced behavioral problems (d = 0.54 [0.08, 1.03]). They also showed larger P3 amplitudes to happy vs. angry and neutral facial expressions post training. Thus, Zirkus Empathico may be a promising digital training for social competence in preschoolers.
Pre-registration of the project can be found here.
To reproduce our analysis, you need the following datasets:
# Load data set
qn_data_desc = readWorksheetFromFile("./data/data_overview.xlsx", sheet = "all_data",
startCol = 1, endCol = 0)
# Create table
kable(qn_data_desc) %>%
kable_styling(bootstrap_options = c("hover"), font_size = 14, fixed_thead = T)| name | data.structure | explanation |
|---|---|---|
| qn_data | each row contains one variable | demographics, behavioral and brain measures |
| app_qn | each row contains one variable | fidelity measures and qualitative questions |
| PFV_emo_topo | All channels x time x emotion | For topographical plots |
| PFV_emo_topo_cg | All channels x time x emotion | averaged data points across controls for all channels |
| PFV_emo_topo_tg | All channels x time x emotion | averaged data points across Zirkus Empathico group for all channels |
| erp_vis_data | data points (599) x channels of interest (15) + time column | To visualize ERP trajectory over time |