Empathetic Concern in Emerging Adolescents: The Role of Theory of Mind and Gender Roles

Abstract

The current study examined the roles of gender, and gender-role orientation in young adolescents’ empathetic concern. In addition, this study aimed to explore the contribution of Theory of Mind in participants’ empathetic concern. Finally, this study examined whether gender and gender-role orientation were implicated in emerging adolescents’ Theory of Mind understanding. One-hundred-fifty 11- to 12-year-olds (79 self-identified females) completed questionnaires measuring their empathetic concern, Theory of Mind, and their perceived gender-role orientation. Results showed that gender-role orientation, specifically, femininity and masculinity predicted empathetic concern above and beyond gender. In addition, the effects of cognitive and affective Theory of Mind are explored and discussed in relation to empathetic concern. Finally, neither gender nor gender-role orientation was found to contribute to participants’ Theory of Mind understanding. These findings suggest that emerging adolescents’ perceived gender roles, as well as their ability to consider another’s beliefs, play a role in their expression of empathetic concern.

The moderating role of spirituality and gender in Canadian and Iranian emerging adolescents’ theory of mind and prosocial behavior

“…One justification of these findings could be a connection between gender roles and social-emotional development factors, which aligns with social learning theory -that people learn by observing, imitating, and modelling behaviors in society (Bandura and Walters, 1977;Nabavi, 2012;Jans-Beken et al, 2018;Khalili et al, 2022). Recent studies show the changing nature of societal gender-role expectations (Andrews et al, 2021;Quenneville et al, 2022). For example, Coyne et al (2021) explored how "princess culture" (in Disney movies and other entertainment) influences gender stereotypes in behavior and body esteem as children learn gender roles through their interaction with Moderating role of duality and culture in the relationship between ToM and prosociality.…”

“…Future studies are 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1134826 Frontiers in Psychology 13 frontiersin.org needed to investigate the moderating role other types of spirituality on the relations among ToM and prosocial behavior in an equal sample size from both countries. In addition, the present study focused on the preferred gender identity of participants (male/female) -but given the changing definitions of gender and gender identities are conceived as more fluid -future studies should address this complexity (Andrews et al, 2021;Quenneville et al, 2022). Lastly, in the present study we used only one of the ToM measurements.…”

“…Few previous ToM studies have focused on emerging adolescence, which is a sensitive transitional period from childhood to adolescence, including significant social, emotional, and cognitive changes that shape young people’s identities ( Crocetti, 2017 ; Bosacki et al, 2018 ). With the increase of gender-role stereotypes and peer interactions during this transition, emerging adolescents have reciprocal and complex interactions with culture and other social context such as spirituality ( Bosacki and Moore, 2004 ; Andrews et al, 2021 ).…”

The role of social cognition in mental health trajectories from childhood to adolescence

“…Our study contributes to this evidence by showing links of superior ToM with mental health across development in the general population. It would appear that superior social cognitive abilities permit a more skilful navigation of the social worlds in which children and adolescents find themselves in, thus protecting against emotional and behavioural problems [ 3 , 8 , 21 ].…”

Validating a brief Empathy Quotient Test with adolescents from Mexico

“…In accordance with Lim et al (2018) and Van Lissa et al (2017), empathy is a cognitive capacity that is more common in women than men. Empathy and emotions that are socially constructed as positive seem to predict prosocial behavior in childhood, especially girls (Andrews et al, 2021).…”