Frei, Anna; Gasser, Luciano; Egger, Sara; Dammert, Yvonne; Preisig, David; Murphy, P. Karen; Hascher, Tina (2026). Promoting social perspective-taking performance in late childhood through literary discussions. International Journal of Educational Research, 139, pp. 1-14 Elsevier. 10.1016/j.ijer.2026.103056

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Promoting social perspective taking (SPT) in school is important, because SPT supports children in navigating social and academic challenges. Discussions with peers about literary fiction seem a promising educational context for improving SPT. This one-year intervention study investigates the effects of small-group discussions about literary fiction on children’s SPT. The study included 619 participants in late childhood randomized into control and intervention groups. We measured children’s ability to (a) articulate different actors’ perspectives and (b) position actors within their social context using the Assessment of Social Perspective-taking Performance. Multilevel analyses revealed small but significant intervention effects on children’s SPT performance relative to the control group (ES = 0.20–0.22). These findings encourage research and practice to capitalize on school-based literary interventions to enhance social-cognitive skills.

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