The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education also in primary schools is fundamentally reshaping the skills required for future participation in work and society. Forecasts indicate that AI-dominated environments will significantly increase the demand for socio-emotional skills. Global labour market analyses predict that skills such as empathy, teamwork, emotional intelligence, creativity, and self-management will become increasingly essential across all industries. In response, educational systems face an urgent need to identify effective, scalable, and developmentally appropriate approaches for fostering socio-emotional learning (SEL) especially from early childhood.
A growing body of researchers and policymakers underscores the importance of SEL for individual well-being, educational achievement, and long-term career readiness. Prominent frameworks, including the OECD Social and Emotional Skills Framework and the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework, conceptualize SEL as a multidimensional construct encompassing self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, responsible decision-making, emotional regulation, collaboration, and open-mindedness. Empirical studies further highlight that foundational socio-emotional competencies are especially critical during early primary school years. 
Existing research has predominantly focused on school-based SEL programs implemented in pre-kindergarten to secondary education, including well-established interventions such as PATHS, MindUp, Open Circle, and Competent Kids, Caring Communities. While these programs demonstrate positive effects on children’s socio-emotional development, findings also emphasize the critical role of parental involvement in reinforcing SEL learning beyond the classroom. However, many parents report feeling overwhelmed by the abundance of learning materials and uncertain about which approaches are evidence-based, engaging, and appropriate for their children. This gap highlights the need for innovative SEL tools that are not only research-based, but also personlized and individual.
This study explores an innovative approach to socio-emotional learning by examining parents’ perceptions of hospitality-related children’s book stories adapted into interactive learning videos for children aged 5 to 7 years. Drawing on the service-oriented nature of the hospitality sector—where empathy, cooperation, respect, and care are central—the study positions hospitality-based narratives as a promising and underexplored context for fostering socio-emotional skills. The research’s objective is based on the following research questions: 
RQ: How do parents evaluate and perceive innovative, interactive videos which have been developed based on research-based children book stories within an hospitality content environment, regarding its impact on learning socio-emotional skills of their 5-7 year old children.   
The research is grounded in Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT), which emphasizes the role of self-efficacy beliefs, outcome expectations, and personal goals in learning and development. Although traditionally applied to career development, SCCT is adapted in this study to examine how parents perceive their children’s socio-emotional learning. 
A quantitative pre–post research design is employed using an online survey administered to parents both before and after viewing an interactive pilot video developed from the research-based picture book 'Dee and Flee in the Theme Park'. The questionnaire, consisting of ten items derived from SCCT constructs, measures parental perceptions of children’s socio-emotional self-efficacy, expected outcomes of SEL learning, and goal-oriented engagement. The study targets parents working in the hospitality and tourism sector as well as parents outside the sector, allowing for comparative analysis across professional contexts. Data collection is planned via Qualtrics, with a target sample size of 1,000 parents recruited through Prolific.
The findings are expected to provide insights into the perceived effectiveness of interactive, story-based learning tools for socio-emotional skill development and to assess the potential of hospitality-oriented narratives as a meaningful and scalable SEL approach. By integrating traditional picture books with immersive digital media, this research contributes to the advancement of innovative, parent-supported SEL interventions. The study offers implications for educators, parents, and policymakers seeking to prepare young learners for future careers and societal participation in an increasingly AI-driven world.

This research focuses on parents of primary school children working in or outside the hospitality industry. Based on the SCCT Theory by Lent et al (1994), a questionnaire has been developed. This model has been used as base for researching children’s career aspirations, and also for researching socio-emotional learning and its impact on children’s self-efficacy, outcome expectations in terms of SEL and their overall goals in SEL. In this research the SCCT model is used as a base to develop the questionnaire for parents to evaluate, how parent’s evaluate and perceive their children’s socio-emotional learning. The core variables of this theory are • self-efficacy beliefs (confidence in one’s abilities) • Outcome expectations (beliefs about the consequences of actions) • Personal goals (determination to engage in certain activities). SCCT provides a useful view to understand how parents’ expectations influence children’s career development and learning of socio-emotional skills. By shaping self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and personal goals to increase engagement, parents help construct the personal and contextual factors that guide children’s career paths and life skills. This research will focus on the impact of children’s books and stories on parents working in hospitality and tourism. Based on the research-based picture book “Dee and Flee in the Theme Park” (University of Surrey) a video-pilot will show the book stories and will be used to test the impact of the book stories to parents working in the tourism industry on their perception regarding their children’s socio-emotional learning. Based on the SCCT Theory (Social Cognitive Career Theory) quantitative pre/post research will be conducted. For this research, a quantitative methodology has been chosen and a parent’s survey, consisting of 10 questions, has been designed. The survey is split into a pre and post - intervention-section and leads the parents step by step through the questions before watching an interactive pilot-video-trailer, which has been developed based on the research-based book stories „Dee and Flee in the Theme park“, and after watching the video. It will be distributed by Qualtrics in February 2026. In this phase we are interested in the assessment of parents working in the hospitality and tourism sector, and parents not working in the sector. We are targeting at 1000 parents taking part in the survey, provided by prolific. A multiple item construct of reflective measurements has been chosen based on the SCCT Model. The questionnaire developed has been based on a quantitative, cross-sectional structure online Survey.

This research responds to the growing demand for socio-emotional skills in an increasingly AI-driven society by exploring innovative and developmentally appropriate approaches to socio-emotional learning (SEL) in early childhood.The present study contributes to this discourse by examining parents’ perceptions of research-based, hospitality-oriented children’s book stories adapted into interactive learning videos for children aged 5 to 7 years. G This approach provides insight into the perceived impact of immersive, story-based learning tools on children’s socio-emotional skill development. The findings are expected to demonstrate that hospitality-related narratives—characterized by service orientation, empathy, and social interaction—offer a valuable and underexplored context for fostering socio-emotional competencies. Importantly, the study underscores the central role of parents in supporting and evaluating SEL interventions, addressing a critical gap in current research and practice. Overall, this research advances the field of socio-emotional learning by proposing a novel, evidence-informed approach that integrates storytelling, interactivity, and parental engagement. The outcomes offer practical implications for educators, content developers, and policymakers seeking to design innovative SEL tools that prepare young learners for future careers and active participation in society. The outcome of this research will give information on the impact-level the book and video-stories have on parents regarding learning socio-emotional skills of their children.  The picture-book stories are the base for this research and give insights on the extend of impact the parents evaluate the content, pictures and storylines for learning socio-emotional skills, which is important for their children’s future careers in any industry. As the survey will be online by February 15th, 2026, the results and analysis of this part of the study (parents perception of the effectiveness of using interactive, videos, based on research-based children stories within hospitality environment for learning socio-emotional skills) will be available by the end of March 2026. This research is part of a research testing the book stories and videos with parents and children.  

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