Raising kids who care about others and the common good.
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Read the latest from Making Caring Common! You’re in the right place for our media coverage, general updates, and press releases. Topics include: Access and Equity, Bias, Bullying, Caring and Empathy, College Admissions, Gender, MCC Update, Misogyny and Sexual Harassment, Moral and Ethical Development, Parenting, Romantic Relationships, School Culture, Trauma, and Youth Advisory Board.

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Read the latest from Making Caring Common!

You’re in the right place for our media coverage, blog posts, and event information. Our work spans a range of topics, all connected by our commitment to elevate caring and concern for the common good at school, at home, and in our communities. You can review what’s new below or use the dropdowns to sort by topic and category.

Be sure to join our email list and connect with us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, to stay current with Making Caring Common’s news and updates. If you’re a member of the media, please visit our Media Room.


KATC: Hotline Connects Teens with Peers in an Effort to Combat Pandemic Loneliness

"About half of lonely young adults in the survey reported that no one in the past few weeks had 'taken more than just a few minutes' to ask how they are doing in a way that made them feel like the person 'genuinely cared,'” emphasizes Ash-har Quraishi, referring to our recent loneliness research.

Find out more in this KATC piece about a hotline that connects teens with peers in an effort to combat pandemic loneliness.

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Foundation for Economic Education: Harvard Study: An Epidemic of Loneliness Is Spreading Across America

How can young adults meaningfully connect with their peers during school closures and remote learning?

Authors of our recent loneliness report emphasize that we we must shift from “Americans’ focus on the self” toward “the common good,” writes Kerry McDonald in this Foundation for Economic Education article.

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Webinar: Sharing Gratitude to Strengthen Connections

Research shows that gratitude is a predictor of both physical and mental well-being and can be regarded as a moral emotion related to recognizing the feelings and intentions of others. In turn, gratitude can lead to increased motivation to reciprocate and extend generosity to others.

In this session, hosted by Harvard’s Making Caring Common project, educators will explore a strategy to help students recognize and express gratitude to others in school and beyond. Click through to learn more and register today!

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The Hill: The pandemic is fueling a crisis of connection. The next surgeon general should tackle both.

"We perpetuate dehumanizing stereotypes of each other that diminish our capacity to care; and we define success as being self-sufficient and achievement oriented rather than relationship oriented,” write Rick Weissbourd, Making Caring Common faculty director, Niobe Way, founder of the Project for the Advancement of Our Common Humanity, and Marc Brackett, director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence in this piece publish by The Hill.

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Grown and Flown: Harvard’s Making Caring Common Study Finds Teens and Young Adults Are Increasingly Lonely

"Even before the social distancing that exacerbated feelings of being alone, young people have been more susceptible to loneliness than older adults,” writes Lisa Endlich Heffernan in Grown and Flown. She discusses our new report, “Loneliness in America: How the Pandemic Has Deepened an Epidemic of Loneliness and What We Can Do About It.”

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HGSE News: Combatting an Epidemic of Loneliness

“We find in our data that 61% of young people are reporting serious loneliness — that they're lonely either frequently, almost all the time, or all the time,” emphasizes MCC Faculty Director Richard Weissbourd in this interview with Emily Boudreau.

Our new research about was highlighted in the Harvard Graduate School of Education News article: Combatting an Epidemic of Loneliness.

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The Santa Fe New Mexican: Model a Moral Code of Conduct for Your Children

This article mentions one of our studies which found that 80 percent of youths valued achievement and happiness over concern for others.

“And it is this prioritizing of personal success over kindness that leads to negative behavior. As parents, we say we want well-behaved kids, but this study points to what it calls a rhetoric/reality gap,” Bizia Greene writes in the Santa Fe New Mexican.

She discusses some Making Caring Common strategies to help us all have kindness in common.

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Tests and the Rest: The Making Caring Common Project

The premise of holistic admissions suggests that admissions officers consider the whole applicant. But how can intangibles like character or compassion be judged alongside empirical data like grades or test scores?

Amy and Mike from Tests and the rest invited Glenn Manning and Brennan E. Barnard to describe how this challenge is being addressed by the Making Caring Common Project.

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HGSE Usable Knowledge: Making Space for Difficult Discussions

Let children lead conversations about traumatic events, says Richard Weissbourd, faculty director of Making Caring Common.

“Find out what their concerns are, make room for their questions, and know how they’re processing and making meaning out of the events first.” Rick spoke with Emily Boudreau for this piece that provides guidance for educators and families to support productive conversations.

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The Spokesman-Review: What Should Count in College Admissions: The Quality of Future Leaders We Most Need

“We may be failing to help our teens develop the critical cognitive, social and ethical capacities that are at the heart of both doing good and doing well in college and beyond,” said Making Caring Common director Richard Weissbourd. Our college admissions work was mentioned in this Spokesman - Review article.

In June of 2020, more than 300 admissions deans spoke out to encourage college applicants to be honest about the obstacles they have faced during the pandemic, as well as meaningful activities they've undertaken, such as caring for siblings, shopping for elderly neighbors, and writing thank-you notes to essential workers.

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USA Today: Dads Took on More Childcare When They Worked From Home During COVID-19. Will a Vaccine End That?

“My guess is that at least some dads, because they have found real and deep gratification in their relationships with their kids during this time, will work hard to preserve this closeness," expressed Rick Weissbourd in USA Today.

This article mentions our research study that found a majority of fathers felt closer to their children during the pandemic.

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