Journal article
Relational antecedents and social implications of the emotion of empathy: Evidence from three studies
Emotion (Washington, D.C.), Vol.17(6), pp.981-992
09/2017
DOI: 10.1037/emo0000297
PMCID: PMC5573613
PMID: 28277713
Abstract
Despite emotion researchers' strong interest in empathy and its implications for prosocial functioning, surprisingly few studies have examined parent-child attachment as a context for early origins of empathy in young children. Consequently, empirical evidence on links among children's attachment, empathy, and prosociality is thin and inconsistent. We examined such links in 2 longitudinal studies of community families (Family Study, N = 101 mothers, fathers, and children, 14 to 80 months; Parent-Child Study, mothers and children, N = 108, 15 to 45 months) and a study of low-income, diverse mothers and toddlers (Play Study, N = 186, 30 months). Children's security was assessed in Strange Situation in infancy and rated by observers and mothers using Attachment Q-Set at toddler age. Children's empathy was observed in scripted probes that involved parental simulated distress. Children's prosociality was rated by parents (Family Study, Play Study). Security with mothers related to higher empathy. For mother- and father-child dyads, security moderated the path from empathy to prosociality. For insecure children, but not secure ones, variations in empathy related to prosociality. Insecure and unempathic children were particularly low in prosociality. (PsycINFO Database Record
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Relational antecedents and social implications of the emotion of empathy: Evidence from three studies
- Creators
- Sanghag Kim - Department of Sociology, Hanyang UniversityGrazyna Kochanska - Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Emotion (Washington, D.C.), Vol.17(6), pp.981-992
- Publisher
- United States
- DOI
- 10.1037/emo0000297
- PMID
- 28277713
- PMCID
- PMC5573613
- ISSN
- 1528-3542
- eISSN
- 1931-1516
- Grant note
- K02 MH001446 / NIMH NIH HHS National Science Foundation National Institute of Mental Health National Institute of Child Health and Human Development R01 HD069171 / NICHD NIH HHS Hanyang University R01 MH063096 / NIMH NIH HHS
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 09/2017
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences
- Record Identifier
- 9984002587202771
Metrics
20 Record Views