Behavioral and physiological correlates of children's reactions to others in distress.

Fabes, Richard A.; Eisenberg, Nancy; Eisenbud, Lisa

doi:10.1037/0012-1649.29.4.655

Cited by 197 publications

(170 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…Similarly, high RSA is associated better adjustment among children of depressed mothers, and among children who experience various forms of adversity (McLaughlin, Alves, & Sheridan, 2014;Shannon, Beauchaine, Brenner, Neuhaus, & Gatzke-Kopp, 2007). Furthermore, RSA is associated positively with children's social engagement (Fox & Field, 1989), with teacher reports of social competence (Eisenberg et al, 1995), and with expressions of empathy toward others who are in distress (Fabes, Eisenberg, & Eisenbud, 1993).…”

Section: Emotion Dysregulation and Youth Psychopathologymentioning

confidence: 94%

Future Directions in Emotion Dysregulation and Youth Psychopathology

Beauchaine

2015

Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology

306

321

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Section: Emotion Dysregulation and Youth Psychopathologymentioning

confidence: 94%

Future Directions in Emotion Dysregulation and Youth Psychopathology

Beauchaine

2015

Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology

306

321

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Vagal influences, as indexed by RSA, typically modulate sympathetic activity under conditions of emotional challenge (Porges, 1995(Porges, , 1997(Porges, , 2001(Porges, , 2007. With neurobiological and facial reactions that are decoupled, boys with DBDs may lack the resources to effectively modulate their physiological arousal, rendering them less capable of responding appropriately to others' distress (Fabes, Eisenberg, & Eisenbud, 1993).Phylogenetic accounts of emotion regulation suggest that PNS-mediated strategies for modulating affect are preferred among mammals. When unsuccessful, emotional lability prevails, with the SNS driving behavior toward either fight or flight responding, an evolutionarily older strategy (see Beauchaine et al, 2007;Porges, 1995Porges, , 2007.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissociation of sad facial expressions and autonomic nervous system responding in boys with disruptive behavior disorders

2007

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Although deficiencies in emotional responding have been linked to externalizing behaviors in children, little is known about how discrete response systems (e.g., expressive, physiological) are coordinated during emotional challenge among these youth. We examined time-linked correspondence of sad facial expressions and autonomic reactivity during an empathy-eliciting task among boys with disruptive behavior disorders (n = 31) and controls (n = 23). For controls, sad facial expressions were associated with reduced sympathetic (lower skin conductance level, lengthened cardiac preejection period [PEP]) and increased parasympathetic (higher respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]) activity. In contrast, no correspondence between facial expressions and autonomic reactivity was observed among boys with conduct problems. Furthermore, low correspondence between facial expressions and PEP predicted externalizing symptom severity, whereas low correspondence between facial expressions and RSA predicted internalizing symptom severity. KeywordsConduct problems; Disruptive behavior; Facial expression; Sadness; Autonomic reactivity Conduct disorder (CD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), jointly labeled as disruptive behavior disorders (DBDs) in the DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), are among the most common mental health problems facing youth (Achenbach & Howell, 1993;Knitzer, Steinberg, & Fleisch, 1991). There is now a growing body of literature suggesting that children and adolescents with DBDs have difficulties with several domains of empathic responding, including emotional processing and self-appraisals of emotional experiences (de Wied, Goudena, & Matthys, 2005;Douglas & Strayer, 1996;Herpertz et al., 2005;Strand & Nowicki, 1999). However, other components of empathic responding such as displays of sad facial expressions and autonomic reactivity have only begun to receive empirical attention (Blair, 1999;de Wied et al., 2005;Douglas & Strayer, 1996;Herpertz et al., 2005).Functionalist theories of emotion suggests that the synchronization of emotional response systems plays a critical role in emotional health and that desynchronization contributes to the emergence and maintenance of psychopathology (see Ekman, 1992;Kring, Kerr, Smith, & Neale, 1993;Levenson, 1994;Mauss, Levenson, McCarter, Wilhelm, & Gross, 2005;Sloan, Strauss, Quirk, & Sajatovic, 1997). According to this perspective, as emotions unfold over time, the coordination of emotional appraisal, expressive behavior, and physiological responses should improve the reliability and precision of emotion cues and promote efficient behavioral and social responses (Levenson, 1994 (Feldman-Barrett, 2006), with some authors finding low to moderate correlations between experiential, behavioral, and physiological response domains (Buck, 1977;Gross & Levenson, 1993,1997Kettunen, Ravaja, Näätänen, Keltikangas-Jarvinen, 2000;Lanzetta, Cartwright-Smith, & Kleck, 1976;Mauss et al., 2005), others reporting discrepancies in the direction of effects (Notar...

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“…The IRI is made up of four seven-item scales, each measuring a different aspect of empathy: perspective taking, empathic concern, personal distress, and fantasy. Similar to other studies (e.g., Fabes et al 1993) a shortened version of this questionnaire was utilized. We selected only a few items from a larger empathy scale to reduce the time and effort by study participants to complete the large number of tests and questionnaires included in this project.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testosterone, Cortisol and Empathy: Evidence for the Dual-Hormone Hypothesis

Zilioli

Ponzi

Henry

et al. 2014

Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology

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The dual hormone hypothesis posits that basal cortisol and testosterone have a joint effect on motivational and behavioral systems implicated in dominance and aggression, such that traits generally associated with high testosterone manifest more in individuals with low basal cortisol levels. Whether this hypothesis applies to behavioral systems other than dominance remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the association between basal testosterone, basal cortisol, and empathy in a large population of MBA students. Empathy was assessed with a short version of the Davis's Interpersonal Reactivity Index and with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET). Higher testosterone was predictive of lower empathy scores among men and women with low basal cortisol, while this association was reversed among individuals with high cortisol levels. In other words, a high-testosterone profile was found to be predictive of both high and low empathic dispositions depending on the concomitant HPA state. The effect was limited to self-reported empathy as no association was found with the RMET. This pattern of results, which emerged when data for men and women were analyzed together, remained significant only for men when analyses were run separately for the two sexes. These results add empathy to the list of behaviors regulated by the joint action of testosterone and cortisol, as outlined by the dual hormone hypothesis.

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Behavioral and physiological correlates of children's reactions to others in distress.

Cited by 197 publications

References 57 publications

Future Directions in Emotion Dysregulation and Youth Psychopathology

Future Directions in Emotion Dysregulation and Youth Psychopathology

Dissociation of sad facial expressions and autonomic nervous system responding in boys with disruptive behavior disorders

Testosterone, Cortisol and Empathy: Evidence for the Dual-Hormone Hypothesis

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