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A new study from UBC Okanagan is shedding light on how high school students show kindness, revealing key insights that could help foster more positive school environments.

Led by Dr. John-Tyler Binfet, Professor in the Okanagan School of Education, the study explored how students aged 14–18 conceptualize kindness and how they express it in their everyday interactions. The findings are in Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy.

"While kindness is a frequent topic in education research, there have been few studies into how high school students understand and apply it in real-life situations," says Dr. Binfet.

Dr. Binfet and his team surveyed 479 grade 9–12 students in the Central Okanagan. The students were asked to rate their own kindness in face-to-face and online interactions, as well as the kindness of their peers, teachers and school environment.

The study revealed that girls rated themselves as significantly kinder than boys, while boys reported feeling kinder during in-person interactions as opposed to online exchanges. Grade 12 students rated themselves as kinder than their younger peers, while grade 9 and 12 students viewed their schools as more positive environments than their grade 10 and 11 peers do.

One of the most notable findings was the significant influence friends have on students' kindness, Dr. Binfet notes. Participants identified their friends, teachers and classmates as being the most significant influences on their kindness, with a number of students also citing public figures, such as celebrities.

"This study shows that students are demonstrating kindness in school—whether it's cheering up a friend, helping a classmate with schoolwork or holding the door open for someone," says Dr. Binfet. "There are grand gestures as well as small meaningful acts."

This research confirms that students both demonstrate and receive meaningful acts of kindness within the school context, see their peers as key influences on their kindness, and generally see themselves and their school as kind. He explains that understanding how high school students understand and enact kindness helps counter negative stereotypes surrounding high school.

The findings from this research may inform low-cost and low-barrier initiatives in schools to help promote positive school environments and support students in developing respectful relationships with one another.

"High school is the last training ground for many students before they head off into the workforce or further advance their studies," says Dr. Binfet. "As we look to create a kinder world, positive school environments become increasingly important. By modeling these behaviors, and providing opportunities for students to express them, we can help reinforce and expand those actions."