Physiological Regulation and Fearfulness as Predictors of Young Children's Empathy‐related Reactions

Abstract

Indices of physiological regulation (i.e., resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA] and RSA suppression) and observed fearfulness were tested as predictors of empathy-related reactions to an unfamiliar person’s simulated distress within and across 18 (T1, N = 247) and 30 (T2, N = 216) months of age. Controlling for T1 helping, high RSA suppression and low fearfulness at T1 predicted T2 helping. In a structural model, empathic concern was marginally positively related to resting RSA at both assessments whereas personal distress was related to RSA suppression within time (marginally positively at T1 and significantly negatively at T2). Fearfulness was associated with self-oriented, distress-related reactions within time. Comfort seeking (an index of personal distress) declined in mean level with age whereas helping increased, and both behaviors exhibited differential continuity (as did resting RSA). Individual, as well as developmental, differences in the types of reactions that young children exhibit when witnessing others’ suffering and distress were discussed.

Maternal cortisol during pregnancy is related to infant cardiac vagal control

“…Lower basal CVC is indicative of less well developed cardiac vagal control and suggestive of less efficient vagal control and reduced physiological capacity to adjust to environmental demands (Beauchaine, 2001). Greater exposure to maternal cortisol during gestation may reduce infant ability to develop the physiological reserve capacity that is needed to regulate responses to physical and social environments; and this reduced capacity may help to explain the association between lower basal CVC and reduced socio-emotional competence (Liew et al, 2011) and effortful control of attention (Taylor et al, 2015) in children with elevated cortisol exposure. These results are also consistent with previous reports of an inverse association between exposure to synthetic glucocorticoids in utero and fetal basal CVC (Lunshof et al, 2005;Schneider et al, 2010;Senat et al, 1998).…”

“…Basal CVC has been hypothesized to indicate physiological flexibility that predisposes engagement with the physical and social environments (Beauchaine, 2001). In support of this, higher basal CVC is associated with effortful control of attention (Taylor et al, 2015), socio-emotional competence (Liew et al, 2011), mental development (Feldman et al, 2014), and cognitive performance (Staton et al, 2009), while lower basal CVC is associated with disorganized attachment (Holochwost et al, 2014) and depression among adults (Kemp et al, 2010;Rottenberg, 2007).…”

Empathic Responses to Mother’s Emotions Predict Internalizing Problems in Children of Depressed Mothers

“…It is typically measured by rating a child’s facial expressions of concern or sympathy for persons in distress (11, 14). The existing research on children’s affective empathy has focused almost exclusively on their negative empathy , meaning their empathic responses to others’ emotional distress and physical pain (22, 26), whereas children’s positive empathy, meaning their experience of happiness or joy after witnessing and comprehending another’s positive emotional state (27), has been investigated in only a few studies. In one of these studies, parents’ reports of positive empathy in their 4-year-old children had small to moderate size associations with measures of negative empathy, supporting these two facets of affective empathy as related but distinct constructs.…”

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia, effortful control, and parenting as predictors of children’s sympathy across early childhood.

“…Heart-rate deceleration has been shown to occur in contexts that evoke a sympathetic/compassionate response, whereas heart-rate acceleration occurs in contexts that evoke distress (see Eisenberg et al, 2006; Goetz et al, 2010). Moreover, researchers have sometimes found that higher levels of baseline RSA (or heart-rate variability) were associated with higher levels of empathy or sympathy (Diamond, Fagundes, & Butterworth, 2012; Liew et al, 2011), low personal distress (Fabes, Eisenberg, & Eisenbud, 1993), and prosocial behavior (Fabes, Eisenberg, Karbon, Troyer, & Switzer, 1994). However, other researchers have not found support, or have found mixed support, for these relations (Graziano, Keane, & Calkins, 2007; Hastings, Zahn-Waxler, Robinson, Usher, & Bridges, 2000; Zahn-Waxler, Cole, Welsh, & Fox, 1995).…”

“…However, other researchers have not found support, or have found mixed support, for these relations (Graziano, Keane, & Calkins, 2007; Hastings, Zahn-Waxler, Robinson, Usher, & Bridges, 2000; Zahn-Waxler, Cole, Welsh, & Fox, 1995). Only a few researchers have examined whether RSA suppression is associated with children’s sympathy or empathic responses, with some finding a positive association (Graziano et al, 2007) or a positive relation to helping, but not sympathy (Liew et al, 2011), and one reporting that RSA suppression to a video recording of a toddler crying predicted less empathic concern in 2-year-olds (Gill & Calkins, 2003). …”