Be kind — both for the betterment of humanity and for your own well-being, says Sandra Bosacki.

As World Kindness Day nears on Nov. 13, the Brock University Professor of Educational Studies is reminding people of the benefits of practising kindness towards themselves and others.

The message, Bosacki says, comes at a pertinent time, with contentious global events filling news feeds and difficult conversations spilling into day-to-day interactions.

The Director of Brock’s Theory of Mind in Education (ToME) Lab explores how having a kind and controlled mindset can help people to treat others with compassion and feel better emotionally.

“Our research team is learning more about emotional regulation and control and investigating if our ability to control our emotions guides our kind behaviours — such as being generous, helpful or comforting — or is it the other way around?” Bosacki says.

Bosacki’s research, which focuses on cognition and emotional well-being in teens, shows that people can act kind and show self-control for different reasons.

Some people control their emotions for the benefit of others, such as being friendly and helpful to friends, she says. Others control their emotions to benefit themselves — often at the cost of others —to acquire things or achieve desired goals, potentially acting in manipulative or coercive ways.

Bosacki says the exploration of the complex links between self-control and kindness can provide valuable insight into how people, especially youth, can learn to balance “self-skills,” such as self-regulation and emotional control, as a way to be kinder and more compassionate to oneself.

“Our research builds on past data that shows when children and adolescents have a kind, gentle and compassionate mindset towards themselves and others, they are more likely to be able to regulate their emotions and actions, and experience well-being and competence in school,” she says.

Bosacki hopes her research will shed light on ways to balance self-control and kind thoughts and actions, and how developing a kind mindset during the teenage years will ultimately lead to a mindful and compassionate new generation of young adults.

“With many feeling the often-heavy emotional weight of global events, understanding as much as we can about how we regulate our emotions will help shape a better, kinder future for us all,” Bosacki said.

Currently underway, the Mentalization, Kindness and Self-Control and Well-being Teen Study is part of a larger five-year research project led by Bosacki.

Adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 years old are invited to participate in the on-line study. Each participant is required to have informed parental consent, and for the child and their parent to have a personal email address.

Parents who think their children may be interested in taking part can contact the Theory of Mind in Education lab at tomelab@brocku.ca