Why Relationships?

Teen Loneliness, Smartphones, and Social Media

Between 1985 and 2004, the proportion of Americans who said they had no one to “discuss important matters with” nearly tripled, rising to nearly 25 percent. Concurrently, the most common scenario shifted dramatically — from people having three close confidants to having no confidants at all.  And, a 2018 study of 20,000 adults, found that loneliness is an “epidemic” in America with 18-22 year-olds the loneliest of all generations.

Health and Happiness

The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child (NSCDC) at Harvard University had a simple question: Why do some children do well and show resilience, despite exposure to stressful circumstances and hardship? Their answer: “Resilience requires relationships, not rugged individualism…The single most common finding is that children who end up doing well have had at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver, or other adult.”

Researchers at Oxford University estimate that 47% of U.S. jobs are at “high risk” for being automated within the next 10-20 years. Research out of MIT reinforces these findings, forecasting that technology’s impact on employment “will only accelerate.” The MIT researchers predict the following skills will be in the highest demand as we move into the future: persuasion, negotiation, and group dynamics; framing and solving open-ended problems; applied math and statistics; sound writing; and human interaction and nurturing.

Supported by strong empirical evidence.

The Positivity Project meets the criteria for a Tier 2 evidence-based intervention under ESSA.

 

A paper published in the International Journal of Education about P2 Partner Schools at the elementary and middle school level show that students reported significantly greater feelings of having quality relationships with others. When asked to name their favorite part of P2, the most frequent response from students was, “It makes me feel understood.” Read the summary here. Read the full paper here.

 

The peer-reviewed journal article “Change in Teacher-Student Relationship Quality During a Tier-One Character Education Intervention” explains that “The quality of relationships between students and teachers is strongly associated with students’ academic, social, and behavioral success.” The paper then shows that students and teachers “experienced higher rates of closeness and lower rates of conflict” as a result of The Positivity Project, compared to a control group that didn’t use The Positivity Project.

 

“Character Education to Address Elementary Students’ Emotional and Behavioral Development: A Quasi-Experimental Study” is an academic journal article that investigates “students’ exposure to the P2 curriculum and changes in their teacher-reported emotional and behavioral problems.” The research then highlights, “students exposed to the P2 curriculum experienced significantly greater reductions in both teacher-reported internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, as compared to students in control classrooms. Furthermore, teachers reported a relatively high level of fidelity of implementation. This finding is important because research suggest only about 50% of teachers implement SEL interventions with adequate levels of fidelity (Low et al., 2016).”