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Keynote Tina Malti, University of Toronto

Caring about Not-Caring: Using the Science of Social-Emotional Development to Prevent Violence

The absence of violence against children is a milestone of civilized society and shows that we care. Similarly, incidences of violence by youth, including severe cases with devastating consequences, speak to the urgent need to address exposure to violence in childhood and adolescence. How can we best tackle the challenge? The science of social-emotional development offers a strengths-based, humanistic perspective to address violence. In this talk, I will argue that a focus on social-emotional protective factors can help prevent and reduce violence by, and against, children and youth. I will begin by introducing the concept of social-emotional development and its core features. Next, I will present empirical findings to illustrate links between social-emotional processes and violence across childhood and adolescence. Then, research-informed attempts to prevent violence through social-emotional development are described, and I will summarize select findings from intervention studies aimed at preventing violence. Lastly, I will draw conclusions for a future agenda of developmentally informed intervention research and discuss recommendations for policy.

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