Self-Compassionate Classrooms: The Case of Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Many recently published reports and studies highlight the increase in internalizing and externalizing problems in children. Children need to work on emotions and acquire methods of regulating and expressing emotions. Research has proven that, in addition to many methods and strategies, compassion-based approaches contribute to the development of emotional skills and the reduction of problems. Self-compassion is considered an emotion regulation skill and plays an important role in reducing negative characteristics such as anxiety, depression, rumination and supporting well-being. However, studies conducted in this direction with children in early childhood remain limited. In this section, self-compassion and its components, the development of self-compassion in early childhood will be explained, and suggestions for supporting self-compassion in the classroom environment will be included.