In the Voices of Adolescents: Co-Designing Four Curricular Components of Compassion Programs to Align With Developmental Needs

Introduction: School-based prevention efforts to support social and emotional learning in adolescence frequently struggle to demonstrate sizable impact, and scholars suggest this may be due to a lack of curricular alignment with adolescent developmental needs. Using co-design methods, this study invited high school students to refine and revise four curricular components of adult compassion trainings (field of care, emotional granularity, stress shapes, and mindfulness). Research questions included: (1) To what extent are adult compassion training curricula aligned with the interests and experiences of high school students? and (2) Does the co-design process of compassion-based curricula support adolescent developmental needs?. Methods: Participants were 15 high school students from one public school district in southeastern Pennsylvania, United States (53% males; M_age = 16, SD = 0.93). A mixed-methods evaluation assessed student perceptions and revisions of the curricular components. Results: Students found the curricular components to be interesting and relevant to their lived experiences, with stress shapes and emotional granularity receiving the highest ratings. Results also demonstrated that the co-design process was developmentally engaging and contributed to compassion toward the self and others. Curricular components were redesigned to evoke a sense of competence, relationality, and meaning within high school students. Conclusion: Revised curricular components, as well as co-design exercises, could be integrated into school-based efforts to support adolescent compassion development. Co-design methods may offer a developmental and equitable approach to adolescent school-based prevention.