Cultivating Compassion and Youth Action Around the Globe: A Preliminary Report on Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Program

This paper describes a unique service-learning based environmental and humanitarian program for youth, The Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots and Shoots program (R&S). R&S aims to foster learning, personal growth and civic engagement among youth members through service activities and environmental education. Despite its promise as a youth development program and its rapid expansion into 100 countries, little is known about R&S’s impact on youth development. In this study, we explore R&S programs in China and Tanzania, two countries that are maximally different from the U.S. in important cultural and contextual factors. Through qualitative and quantitative methods we describe the programs, their practices, and perceptions of their impact on youths’ personal and social development (cognitive and social competence, leadership, self-efficacy, citizenship and social responsibility). Additionally, we highlight the importance of sociocultural and ecological factors when developing and evaluating youth programs

Cultivating Compassion and Youth Action Around the Globe: A Preliminary Report on Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots Program

This paper describes a unique service-learning based environmental and humanitarian program for youth, The Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots and Shoots program (R&S). R&S aims to foster learning, personal growth and civic engagement among youth members through service activities and environmental education. Despite its promise as a youth development program and its rapid expansion into 100 countries, little is known about R&S’s impact on youth development. In this study, we explore R&S programs in China and Tanzania, two countries that are maximally different from the U.S. in important cultural and contextual factors. Through qualitative and quantitative methods we describe the programs, their practices, and perceptions of their impact on youths’ personal and social development (cognitive and social competence, leadership, self-efficacy, citizenship and social responsibility). Additionally, we highlight the importance of sociocultural and ecological factors when developing and evaluating youth programs

Youth Civic Engagement in China: Results From a Program Promoting Environmental Activism

China is a key player on the global stage, and nearly 300 million Chinese youth stand to be affected by rapid social and ecological transformations. Programs that promote developmental assets in Chinese youth could increase their resilience in the face of contemporary stressors and enhance their capacity to contribute to China\u27s development. In this paper we describe a unique, service-learning approach to youth development, the Jane Goodall Institute\u27s Roots & Shoots program (R&S), as it is implemented in China. Through qualitative and quantitative methods we explore perceptions of program impact on the personal and social development of Chinese youth. Cultural, sociopolitical, and environmental issues related to program practices, outcomes and viability are highlighted. Results suggest that R&S mobilized Chinese youth to work for the benefit of their environment, their communities, and themselves

Comparing children's Homo sapiens and chimpanzees' Pan troglodytes quantity judgments of sequentially presented sets of items

We presented a quantity judgment task that involved comparing two sequentially presented sets of items to preschoolers and chimpanzees using nearly identical procedures that excluded verbal instructions to children. Trial difficulty in this task reflected the ratio difference between sets of discrete items where larger ratios (e.g., 0.80 as from comparing 4 to 5) were more difficult than smaller ones (e.g., 0.50 as from comparing 4 to 8). Children also completed verbal-based tasks probing the relationship between counting proficiency and performance on the quantity judgment task of sequentially presented identical sized items. Both species’ performance was best when ratios between comparison sets were small regardless of set size in all types of tasks. Generally, chimpanzees and older children performed better than younger children except at larger ratios. Children’s counting proficiency was not related to success in choosing the larger of two quantities of identical-sized items. These results indicate that chimpanzees and children share an approximate number sense that is reflected through analog magnitude estimation when comparing quantities [Current Zoology 57 (4): 419–428, 2011]

Common Territories in Comparative and Developmental Psychology: Quest for Shared Means and Meaning in Behavioral Investigations

Comparative and developmental psychology have impacted one another for well over 100 years. Researchers have studied developmental processes of humans and nonhumans to formulate evolutionary theories and to determine the contributions of hereditary and experiential factors at ontogenetic and phylogenetic levels. We discuss current directions in comparative and developmental research that attend to micro-developmental processes and ecological contexts as sources of variability in humans and nonhumans. This research has been a segue into studies of behavior that are integrative in scope, such the family of systems theories, which cross disciplinary boundaries. We present findings from our research on instrumental manual activity in human and nonhuman primates from a systems perspective, and argue that integrative systems approaches hold promise for understanding individuals and development of behavior across species

Response to novel housing in two groups of captive tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella)

The influence of age, maternal status, and the presence of a group male on use of space was assessed in two groups of captive tufted capuchin monkeys that underwent a move from indoor housing to a larger outdoor facility. Both groups originally contained two adult males, but only one group retained a male after the move. Following the move, mothers spent less time on the ground when carrying their infants than they did when not carrying their infants. In the group with no male (1) individuals decreased time spent on the ground relative to pre-move levels, whereas no such difference was noted in the group with the male; (2) females spent more time carrying their infants than did females in the group with a male. In the group with the adult male, juveniles spent less time on the ground than did non-mother adult females, whereas no difference had existed prior to the move. Grooming rates dropped from pre-move to post-move, but the mean number of partners with which each animal was in contact increased. Measures of social behavior varied across post-move observation periods inversely to time spent on the ground. These results are consistent with the view that an individual’s relative vulnerability influences behavioral conservatism in novel environments, and suggests a relatively profound role for males in promoting exploration of new space in this species

Predicting Civic Competencies Among East African Youth and Emerging Adults: Report on the Swahili General Self-Efficacy Scale

Self-efficacy has been examined around the world, with research indicating its importance for personal and civic development. The General Self-Efficacy Scale has been translated into 33 languages; however, no African language version has been well established, and research on self-efficacy in the region is rare. A measure of self-efficacy in Swahili, a language widely used in East Africa, could spur research. We describe the development of the Swahili General Self-Efficacy Scale and its psychometric properties with a large, diverse group of Tanzanian youth and emerging adults ( N = 1,409, ages 13–26). We report psychometrics including internal consistency, factor structure, convergent reliability, and the ability of the measure to predict civic competencies. Our results establish the Swahili General Self-Efficacy Scale as a credible measure with implications for personal and civic development. We suggest areas for investigation and provide the Swahili scale as an impetus for research in the region.</jats:p