The relations of ego-resiliency and emotion socialization to the development of empathy and prosocial behavior across early childhood.

Abstract

The present study explored early personality and environmental predictors of the development of young children’s empathy, as well as relations of empathy to prosocial behavior with peers at a later age. How children manage their own emotions and behaviors when under stress—their ego-resiliency—would be expected to affect their responses to others’ emotions. Also, socialization experiences, such as the quality of parenting behaviors, have been associated with individual differences in empathy-related responding. We examined whether mothers’ emotion socialization practices and children’s ego-resiliency at 18 months predicted initial levels and change in empathy across five time points (24, 30, 42, 48, and 54 months; N = 242), and whether empathy in turn predicted prosocial behavior with peers at 72/84 months of age. Ego-resiliency and mothers’ expressive encouragement both uniquely predicted the intercept of empathy. Boys’ empathy was lower than girls’ but improved more with age. Initial levels and growth of empathy positively predicted later prosocial behavior. Children’s ego-resiliency predicted the slope of empathy at near significance (p = .054). We also found that the intercept of empathy mediated the relation between ego-resiliency and prosocial behavior as well as the relation between mothers’ expressive encouragement and prosocial behavior. These findings suggest that both parenting and personality characteristics are relevant to the development of empathy during early childhood and might contribute to children’s later prosocial behavior with peers.

Moderate baseline vagal tone predicts greater prosociality in children.

“…For example, parental reports of children’s ability to handle stress at 18 months of age have been linked to children’s empathy 6 months later, which, in turn, predicted teacher-rated prosocial behavior at 72 and 84 months (Taylor, Eisenberg, Spinrad, Eggum, & Sulik, 2013). Experiencing too much vicarious arousal can lead to personal distress – a self-focused response to the distress of others that is typically characterized by aversive feelings like anxiety (Eisenberg, 2000).…”

Unraveling the Complexities of Empathy Research: A Multi-Level Model of Empathy in Organizations

“…An individual's emotional and cognitive regulatory ability is also shown to affect empathic responding (Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004;Taylor, Eisenberg, Spinrad, Eggum, & Sulik, 2013). These regulatory abilities are therefore part of considered behavior that results from an empathic event.…”

La empatía en la primera infancia

“…Según va transcurriendo el desarrollo del niño, la empatía va alcanzando no sólo a su primer entorno más cercano, sino a sus pares, culminando con conductas de mayor independencia al haber ya logrado ciertas representaciones mentales (Schapira & Cravedi, 2014;Taylor, Eisenberg, Spinrad, Eggum & Sulik, 2013).…”