Feeling and thinking of others: affective and cognitive empathy and emotion comprehension in prosocial/hostile preschoolers

Family Emotional Expressiveness and Adolescents' Cyberbullying Bystanders: The Mediating Role of Empathy

Background

The significant influence of family emotional expressiveness (FEE) on adolescents' face-to-face social interactions is well-established. However, there has been limited investigation into potential links between FEE and adolescents' online social behaviors, especially cyberbullying bystander behaviors, which are pivotal in cyberbullying incidents. This study aimed to assess the relative importance of different aspects of FEE (positive FEE vs. negative FEE vs. the Positive-to-Negative ratio) in predicting adolescents' cyberbullying bystander behaviors, and the mediating roles of affective and cognitive empathy in these relationships.

Methods

A sample of 1,952 adolescents (Mage = 14.18, SD = 1.33) completed questionnaires, including the Family Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire, Basic Empathy Scale, and Cyberbullying Bystander Behavior Scale. SPSS 26.0 and Mplus 8.3 were used for analysis.

Results

(1) Positive FEE exhibited a positive association with protective behavior and a negative association with indifferent behavior. Conversely, negative FEE showed positive associations with reinforcing and indifferent behaviors. However, the Positive-to-Negative ratio did not exhibit significant associations with any of the three bystander behaviors. (2) Negative FEE emerged as relatively more significant than both positive FEE and the Positive-to-Negative ratio in predicting reinforcing and indifferent behaviors. (3) Affective empathy mediated the relationship between positive FEE and reinforcing behavior, while cognitive empathy mediated the relationship between positive FEE and protective and indifferent behaviors. Moreover, cognitive empathy exerted a more influential role than affective empathy in this mediation process.

Conclusion

Various aspects of FEE demonstrated distinct relationships with three cyberbullying bystander behaviors, with affective and cognitive empathy playing an important mediating role in the association. This finding holds substantial implications for the development of cyberbullying prevention strategies. Such strategies could target the reduction of negative emotional expression within adolescent families and the cultivation of both cognitive and affective empathy.

The relationship between theory of mind and moral sensitivity among Chinese preschool children: the mediating role of empathy

BACKGROUND

Identifying moral behavior in complex situations is the key ability for children to develop prosocial behavior. The theory of mind (ToM) and empathy provide the cognition and emotional motivation required for the development of moral sensitivity. In this study, we investigated the associations among ToM, empathy, and moral sensitivity and explored the possible differences between Chinese preschool children aged 4 and 5 years.

METHODS

One hundred and thirty children completed the unexpected-content and change-of-location tasks as well as questionnaires about empathy and moral sensitivity individually. A one-way analysis of variance and the multi-group mediation SEM were used to examine the associations of the three variables and age differences.

RESULTS

The scores of 5-year-old children in the dimensions of care, fairness, authority, and sanctity and the total score were higher than those of 4-year-old children. Moral sensitivity was positively correlated with both ToM and empathy after we controlled for verbal IQ and gender. Multigroup mediation analyses showed age-based differences in the associations among moral sensitivity, ToM, and empathy. Empathy's mediation effect was partial among 4-year-old children and complete among 5-year-old children.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings contribute to understanding the cognitive and emotional factors in the formation of children's moral sensitivity. They also point to a promising approach to promoting the development of moral sensitivity and evidence for educators to understand the process of children's socialization.

Focusing attention on others' negative emotions reduces the effect of social relationships on children's distributive behaviors

The present study investigates whether directing five- to six-year-old children's attention to hypothetical resource recipients that included familiar and non-familiar people would affect their favoritism toward a familiar person, as reflected in how they allocated resources. In Experiment 1, we instructed participants to give one of several stickers to another person or keep all the stickers for themselves. Under the control conditions, participants more frequently gave stickers to friends than to non-friends. However, when asked about others' emotions, they distributed stickers equally among friends and non-friends. Therefore, focusing on others' thoughts reduced participants' favoritism toward friends. Experiment 2 tested whether focusing on both emotional valences would affect favoritism toward a familiar person, as reflected in children's resource distribution choices. Experiment 2 was identical to Experiment 1, except we asked participants about the other person's emotional valence. When asked about others' negative emotions, participants distributed the stickers equally between themselves and others. However, when asked about others' positive emotions, they distributed more stickers to friends than to non-friends. Neither others' emotional valence nor group status affected the perceived intensity of their emotion or the participant's emotional state. These results suggest that children's favoritism toward friends can be reduced by encouraging them to think about others' negative emotional states.

Agreeableness and adolescents' cyberbullying perpetration: A longitudinal moderated mediation model of moral disengagement and empathy

OBJECTIVE

The current study explored whether agreeableness predicted cyberbullying perpetration across 3 years and extended previous studies by exploring the mediating effect of moral disengagement and the moderating effects of empathy and gender.

METHOD

The participants included 2407 adolescents from 7 middle schools in China. They were recruited to complete the Big Five Personality Inventory, Bullying Scale and Empathy Scale at Time 1, Moral Disengagement Scale at Time 1 and Time 2, and Cyberbullying Perpetration Scale at Time 1, Time 2, and Time 3.

RESULTS

Agreeableness at Time 1 predicted cyberbullying perpetration at Time 3 and moral disengagement at Time 2 mediated this relationship. The relationship between moral disengagement at Time 2 and cyberbullying perpetration at Time 3 was stronger for low cognitive empathy adolescents than high cognitive empathy adolescents at Time 1. The relationship between agreeableness at Time 1 and cyberbullying perpetration adolescents at Time 3 was stronger for low affective empathy than high affective empathy adolescents at Time 1. The link between moral disengagement at Time 2 and cyberbullying perpetration at Time 3 was weaker for females than males.

CONCLUSIONS

Low agreeableness adolescents are more likely to use moral disengagement, which in turn leads to more cyberbullying perpetration.

Empathy in Preschoolers: Exploring Profiles and Age- and Gender-Related Differences

Empathy is a key skill in the daily life of preschoolers, and it is important to understand how it evolves during this crucial period of development. This paper includes two studies. The first study, which had a cross-sectional design, examined affective, cognitive, and behavioral empathy in 354 children (aged from 3 to 6 years) through a performance-based measure and questionnaires completed by their mothers. Although girls tended to have better affective empathy than boys on the performance-based task, no difference was noted in the mothers' perceptions of their children's empathy. Empathy dimensions varied depending on the age of the children. The hierarchical cluster analyses of the cases identified differentiated subgroups of children, according to their empathic skills in the three dimensions. The second study, which was longitudinal, used the same measures and investigated the developmental trajectory of empathy in 69 preschoolers over one year. The results showed that each empathic dimension predicted itself one year later, but did not predict the two others. The implications for potential interventions are emphasized in this study.

Peer victimization and empathy for victims of bullying: A test of bidirectional associations in childhood and adolescence

Anti-bullying interventions often assume that knowing how it feels to be bullied increases empathy for victims. However, longitudinal research on actual experiences of bullying and empathy is lacking. This study investigated whether within-person changes in victimization predicted changes in empathy over 1 year using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models. Self- and peer-reported victimization, and cognitive and affective empathy for victims were measured in a sample of 15,713 Finnish youth (M_age  = 13.23, SD_age  = 2.01, 51.6% female; 92.5% had Finnish-speaking parents; data was collected in 2007-2009 when information about participants' race/ethnicity was not available due to ethical guidelines for the protection of personal information). Results indicated small, positive longitudinal associations from victimization to cognitive empathy. Implications for empathy-raising interventions are discussed.

Examining the trajectory of parent emotion talk in mothers of toddlers: A predominantly Latine sample

Supportive parent emotion socialization has been associated with greater child emotion understanding and expression and lower levels of externalizing behavior problems, with limited understanding on parent emotion socialization in toddlerhood. The current study examined the developmental trajectory of emotion socialization via emotion talk in mothers of toddlers from a predominantly Latine sample. Participants were 101 mother-toddler dyads assessed over three time points from ages 12-25 months. Overall, maternal emotion talk remained relatively stable over time, although there was a significant decrease between the first and second assessments before returning to initial rates at the third assessment. Maternal emotion talk did not predict child externalizing behavior over time. Interestingly, however, greater toddler externalizing behavior problems was associated with an increase in maternal emotion talk over time. These findings suggest maternal emotion talk is relatively stable for parents of children who are low on externalizing behaviors and may fluctuate (i.e., slowly increase) for mothers of children who are high in externalizing behaviors. Understanding these mechanisms further could help inform how we implement and personalize parenting interventions.

Early Adolescent Cognitive and Affective Empathy

Abstract. Cognitive and affective empathy have diverging relations to social–emotional adjustment. However, particularly during adolescence, these associations are not thoroughly understood. Using the Basic Empathy Scale (BES), we examined cognitive and affective empathy (including emotional contagion and emotional disconnection) in association with social–emotional adjustment (negative affect, shyness, social self-efficacy, friendship quality, and peer victimization) in early adolescents ( N = 321). Cognitive empathy and emotional contagion showed divergent links (cognitive empathy was related to positive adjustment, while emotional contagion was related to negative adjustment but also higher friendship quality). Emotional disconnection was negatively associated with social self-efficacy, supporting affective empathy as having multiple factors itself. The findings further validate the BES as a three-factor measure and have implications for understanding social–emotional adjustment in youth.

Impact of a Behavioral Parenting Intervention in Infancy on Maternal Emotion Socialization

Research has demonstrated the effect of parent emotion socialization on later child emotion development and behavior. Given these findings, the goal of the present study was to examine the effect of an early parenting intervention on a component of emotion socialization: parent emotion talk. We also examined the indirect effect of behaviorally-based parenting skills on the relation between the intervention and parent emotion talk. Participants were 58 mothers and their 12- to 15-month-old infant. Families were randomly assigned to standard pediatric primary care or a brief in-home intervention targeting parenting skills to promote positive infant behavior. Families completed assessments at baseline, post-intervention, and a 3-month follow-up. Assessments included a 10-min infant-led play task, which was coded for parent emotion talk. Results demonstrated a significant effect of the intervention on parent emotion talk. Specifically, mothers in the intervention group displayed a higher frequency of parent emotion talk at post-intervention. Indirect effects of behaviorally-based parenting skills were significant, demonstrating that increases in behaviorally-based parenting skills at the post-intervention led to increases in parent emotion talk at the follow-up. Findings highlight the effect of a brief, home-based behavioral parenting intervention with infants on maternal emotion socialization.

Social Status and Emotional Competence in Bullying: A Longitudinal Study of the Transition From Kindergarten to Primary School

Moving on to a higher level of schooling represents a crucial developmental challenge for children: studies have shown that transitioning to a new school context can increase the perceived importance of peer acceptance, popularity, and adaptation to the new social environment. The aim of this study was to investigate simultaneously the influence of interpersonal variables (social status indices) and personal variables (empathy and understanding of emotions) on role-taking in bullying episodes (hostile, prosocial, victim, and outsider roles) from a longitudinal perspective. These variables were assessed on 41 children in their last year of kindergarten (t1) and in their 1st year of primary school (t2). The main longitudinal results showed that prosocial behaviors are more stable than hostile, victim, and outsider behaviors. Moreover, social preference—together with affective empathy—at t1 had a clear negative predictive effect on hostile roles at t2, while social preference had a positive effect on prosocial roles at t2. Social impact at t1 negatively predicted being a victim at t2. On the other hand, social preference at t2 was negatively predicted only by the victim role at t1. Social impact at t1 had a significant and negative effect on being victimized at t2 while was negatively predicted at t2 by the outsider at t1. Our study—even if exploratory—seems to highlight the existence of a specific, differentiate effect of two distinct social status indices on the participant role-taking in bullying episodes in the transitional period from kindergarten to primary school.

Preschoolers' Empathy Profiles and Their Social Adjustment

Preschoolers face new challenges in their social life: the development of social and emotional abilities in order to have positive relationships with peers and adults. Empathy, the ability to share and understand the emotions of others, contributes to this socio-emotional adjustment. This exploratory study examines mothers and fathers' perceptions of their child's empathy and individual factors, such as age, gender, and personality, which are related to cognitive and affective empathy in 63 typically developing preschoolers. Links between children's individual characteristics (empathy and personality) and their social adjustment on the one hand and risk of developing internalized vs. externalized behaviors on the other were also investigated. Parents completed four questionnaires about their child's empathy, personality, and social (mal)adjustment. The results showed that mothers and fathers perceived their children's cognitive and affective empathy, attention to others' feelings, and social actions (such as helping), in the same way, except for emotion contagion. Gender differences appeared specifically for some components of empathy: girls were said to pay more attention to others' emotions while boys had better cognitive empathy. Moreover, children's empathy as perceived by mothers or fathers was positively linked with their age, and with personality factors (extraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, and openness to experience). Cognitive empathy and personality were found to be partly related to higher social skills and lower externalized and internalized behaviors. The results nuanced specific links between cognitive and affective empathy and social adjustment as well as behavior problems at preschool age. These results may have some implications for future research and prevention in childhood.

Conceptualizing callous-unemotional traits in preschoolers: Associations with social-emotional competencies and aggressive behavior

BACKGROUND

Extensive empirical evidence suggests that high Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits in childhood and adolescence can reliably identify individuals at risk for antisocial outcomes. The present study addresses research gaps by investigating the factor structure of CU traits in children at preschool age.

METHODS

The sample includes 371 children (49.6% female, M age = 4.7, SD = 0.69). Using the Inventory of Callous-Unemotional-Traits (ICU), six alternative confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to find the best fitting model for our preschool sample. Children's level of emotional competence and aggressive behavior was assed using a German questionnaire, the Behavior Rating Scales for Preschoolers (Verhaltensskalen für das Kindergartenalter, VSK) in a preschool teachers' rating. Post hoc cluster analytic strategies and ANOVA were applied to identify groups of children with regard to their combination of social-emotional competences and CU traits, and to examine associations with aggressive behavior.

RESULTS

Results indicate that a two-factor model revealed the best fit to our data, including a callous and an uncaring factor using 12 of the original 24 ICU items. Cluster analytic strategies reveal a risk group of children demonstrating high rates of callousness and uncaring combined with weak emotion knowledge/empathy and social competence. ANOVA shows that children in the risk group demonstrate the highest levels of aggressive behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

Group characteristics indicate that the construct of CU traits in early childhood may be nothing other than a social-emotional developmental deficit.

Preschoolers' Helping Motivations: Altruistic, Egoistic or Diverse?

Based on Eisenberg et al.'s model of prosocial motivations, the present study examined what motivates preschoolers to display instrumental helping and how various motivations develop during the preschool years. The participants were 477 preschoolers aged 3–5 years assigned to one of five groups. In each experimental group, the experimenter emphasized an altruistic or egoistic helping motivation, namely, empathic concern, moral rules, praise or rewards. In the control group, no helping motivations were emphasized. Their instrumental helping was then measured by sorting cards for a sick child to play a game. The results show that each helping motivation had a positive effect on instrumental helping. Most of the motivational effects were similar across age, but the motivational effect of empathic concern increased obviously at the age of 5 years. Therefore, the present study reveals that both altruistic and egoistic motivations motivate preschoolers to help others. Most of the motivations develop steadily during the preschool years, but empathic concern as an altruistic motivation increases greatly at the end of the preschool years. The present study thus confirms the diversity of preschoolers' helping motivations with Eisenberg et al.'s model of prosocial motivations.

Friendship is more than strategic reciprocity: Preschoolers' selective sharing with friends cannot be reduced to strategic concerns

The current study investigated whether children share especially much with their friends when sharing can be reciprocated (strategic sharing) or whether friendship and strategic reciprocity are independent factors in predicting children's sharing. If the former is the case, children should prefer their friend relatively more in a situation where the friend can reciprocate than in a situation without the possibility for reciprocity. In two experiments, 3- and 5-year-old participants (N = 270) could distribute stickers between themselves and three recipients: a friend, a child who would join the kindergarten group the next day, and a stranger. Half of the children were led to believe that their generosity could be reciprocated, and the other half were not. In Experiment 1, this was implemented by anonymous and nonanonymous sharing. In Experiment 2, the possibility of reciprocity or lack thereof was explicitly mentioned. The results show that participants across both age groups shared more resources with their friend than with less familiar recipients. Potential reciprocity affected 5-year-olds' sharing but not 3-year-olds' sharing-but only if reciprocity was explicitly mentioned (Experiment 2). Importantly, the preference for the friend was independent of the possibility to be reciprocated for all children. The current study shows that friendship and strategic reciprocity are relevant but probably largely independent factors for children's sharing. That is, the preference to share with friends cannot be reduced to strategic considerations.

Peer Victimisation in Early Childhood; Observations of Participant Roles and Sex Differences

During middle childhood and adolescence, victimisation appears to be a group process involving different participant roles. However, peer reports with younger children (four to six years old) have failed to identify the participant roles of assistant (to the bully) reinforcers or defenders with much reliability. This may be because peer victimisation is a more dyadic process among younger children (behavioural reality), or because of limitations in young children’s cognitive capacity to identify these behaviours (cognitive limitations). The findings of an observational study which examined the group nature of peer victimisation among young children are presented. Observations were made of 56 children aged four and five years using time sampling during free play at school (totalling 43.5 h of observation). Records were made of their behaviour when an onlooker witnessed aggression by others, and also of others’ behaviour when they were being aggressive or being victimised. Although children other than the aggressor and target were present in nearly two thirds of the episodes of peer victimisation observed, few exhibited behavioural responses in line with the assistant, reinforcer or defender roles. This supports the behavioural reality rather than the cognitive limitations explanation. Sex differences were observed in types of aggression displayed by children, with boys more likely than girls to be physically aggressive. Children were less likely to be aggressive to other-sex peers and were most likely to be victimised by children of the same sex as them. There were also sex differences in children’s onlooker behaviour. The implications for our understanding of the development of peer victimisation and bullying in children are discussed.

Predicting externalizing behavior in toddlerhood from early individual differences in empathy

BACKGROUND

From middle childhood onward, there is often a negative link between empathy and externalizing behavior problems. Patterns at younger ages are still unclear, with mixed findings of no association, negative associations, and positive associations. This study examines links between empathy and externalizing problems, beginning in infancy.

METHODS

A community sample of infants (N = 165) was assessed for empathy at 3, 6, 12, 18, and 36 months, using behavioral observations. Externalizing problems were reported at 18 months (by mothers) and 36 months (by mothers and daycare teachers).

RESULTS

Boys showed more externalizing problems than girls. For boys, negative associations between empathy and externalizing appeared, particularly with teacher reports. For girls, there were positive associations between empathy and externalizing, which weakened with age. For both genders, empathy at ages 3, 6, and 18 months appeared to protect against increases in externalizing from 18 to 36 months.

CONCLUSIONS

The role of empathy in the development of early externalizing depends on both gender and age; toddler boys' externalizing may more typically stem from low empathy, whereas girls' early externalizing appears to be underlain by heightened sensitivity and unregulated or assertive approach attempts.

Meta-Representational Skills in Bullying Roles: The Influence of Definitional Competence and Empathy

This study investigated the influence of meta-representational aspects on bullying. Meta-representation was operationalized in terms of the metalinguistic skill to produce conventional definitions, reflecting culturally shared representations and of the meta-level capacity to represent others' mental states underlying empathic disposition. One hundred and seventeen children, aged between 8;5 and 10;11 years, completed a definitional task and self-report questionnaires on bullying roles and empathic disposition. Descriptive, correlational, and regression analyses were performed. Results confirmed that hostile roles are negatively related to definitional competence and to empathic disposition. Lack of definitional competence was the main predictor (accounting for about 16% of variance), followed by empathy (explaining a further 6% of variance) of Primary School children's disposition to assume aggressive behaviors. These findings suggest that a lack of general meta-representational abilities may hinder the development of abstract and other-centered perspective taking, and compromise (compromising) social adjustment. This implies the need to work, particularly in school, on enhancing meta-representational and metalinguistic skills, such as the ability to recognize mental states and verbally make explicit cultural-semantic word meaning representations.

Psychometric properties of empathy questionnaire for Spanish adolescents

The aim of this study was to adapt and test the empathy questionnaire in Spanish adolescents (N = 701, age = 13.47 years). The study involved two different strands: (1) the questionnaire was translated into Spanish, and its internal consistency, factorial structure and convergent validity were assessed; (2) the questionnaire was subject to confirmatory factor analysis.

The results of the confirmatory factor analysis show that the questionnaire’s factors present an aggregate variance of 58.588%, which suggests that the questionnaire is a valid tool to represent affective empathy, cognitive empathy and empathic concern. On the other hand, the confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the sustainability of the model, which comprises three identified factors and twelve items. The empathy questionnaire is easy to understand and can be completed in a short time, so it is considered a useful tool to assess empathy in Spanish adolescents. The results are discussed in the context of theoretical accounts of empathy.

Trait Emotional Intelligence and School Burnout: The Mediating Role of Resilience and Academic Anxiety in High School

The main aim of the current study was to investigate the role of trait emotional intelligence (TEI) in preventing students’ school burnout directly and indirectly via anxiety and academic resilience. The data were derived from a sample of 1235 high school students (962 females and 273 males), ranging in age between 13 and 17 years (mean = 15.46; stand deviation = 1.22). Structural equation modelling revealed a strong indirect effect of TEI on school burnout, mediated via anxiety and resilience. Overall, students with high TEI were less likely to experience school anxiety and more likely to exhibit resilience which, in turn, reduced school burnout risk. Findings are discussed with reference to the wider role of TEI in educational contexts and highlight the need and potential for scientifically driven interventions to enhance emotional adjustment at school and in life, more generally.

Associations between empathy, inhibitory control, and physical aggression in toddlerhood

Impaired empathy has been associated with aggression in children, adolescents and adults, but results have been contradictory for the preschool period. Impaired inhibitory control also increases the risk of aggression, and possibly moderates empathy‐aggression associations. The current study investigated whether empathy and inhibitory control are associated with aggression in toddlerhood. Furthermore, we aimed to clarify the role of inhibitory control in empathy and aggression, specifically, whether inhibitory control moderates the association between empathy and aggression. During a laboratory visit at age 30 months (N = 103), maternal reports of physical aggression were obtained and child inhibitory control was examined using a gift delay task. Empathy was examined by obtaining behavioral observations and recording physiological responses (heart rate response and respiratory sinus arrhythmia response) to an empathy‐eliciting event (i.e., simulated distress). Reduced inhibitory control was associated with more aggression. Behavioral and physiological indicators of empathy were not associated with aggression. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed an interaction effect of heart rate response to distress simulation with inhibitory control in the prediction of aggression. Post hoc analyses indicated a negative association between heart rate response and aggression when inhibitory control was high, but a positive association was found in toddlers who demonstrated low inhibitory control. These results suggest that children are less aggressive when they have both high levels of empathy and inhibitory control. Therefore, both empathy and inhibition are important targets for interventions aiming to reduce or prevent aggression at a young age.

New Approaches to Defender and Outsider Roles in School Bullying

Using latent profile analysis, this study refined the traditional defender and outsider roles in bullying research and examined intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual factors associated with subtypes of roles. Participants were 1,373 adolescents (40% girls, M_age : 14 years) from 54 classrooms in six middle schools. The results revealed that defenders could be classified as either assertive or comforting and that outsiders could be classified as either sympathetic or indifferent. These different profiles were explained by affective empathy, antibullying attitudes, self-efficacy, and responsibility to intervene at the intrapersonal level; popularity and peer preference at the interpersonal level; and peers' antibullying attitudes and expectations at the contextual level. Implications for studying participant roles in bullying research and for advancing antibullying interventions were discussed.

A meta-analysis of the relationship between moral disengagement and bullying roles in youth

Over the last several years, researchers have become increasingly interested in the influence of moral factors on bullying behaviors. This is the first meta-analytic review to exclusively examine the relationship between moral disengagement (MD) and the key bullying roles of bully, victim, defender, and bystander. Forty-seven independent samples examining a total of 43,809 children/adolescents (aged 7-19) were included in this meta-analysis. Results indicated a positive relationship between MD and bullying (r = 0.31; 95% CI [0.27, 0.34]), MD and victimization (r = 0.08; 95% CI [0.05, 0.12]), and a negative relationship between MD and defending (r = -0.11; 95% CI [-0.17, -0.04]). No significant relationship was found for MD and bystanding behavior. Moderators of bullying type (traditional vs. cyberbullying), reporting type (self vs. peer report), age, and gender were included in the analyses. The results are discussed in the context of relevant literature with particular emphasis on the importance of distinguishing between guilty and unconcerned bystanders, and the significant overlap between bullying and victimization in the cyber context.

Efecto de la empatía afectiva sobre el procesamiento cortical de emojis

Objetivo. Identificar las diferencias en el procesamiento cortical de emojis en personas con alta y baja empatía afectiva. Método. El estudio se llevó a cabo con 69 participantes, distribuidos en dos grupos –baja y alta empatía afectiva–, según su puntaje en el Índice de Reactividad Interpersonal. Cada participante observó emojis con expresiones de alegría, ira y neutros. Se registraron los potenciales relacionados a eventos (PRE) P100, N170 y LPP. Resultados. Se encontró una mayor amplitud del N170 en el grupo de personas con alta empatía afectiva y, en general, mayor magnitud del LPP ante emojis de ira. Conclusión. Los resultados sugieren que los emojis son procesados corticalmente de forma similar al rostro humano y que la empatía afectiva modula la codificación del emoji, pero no la atención temprana y el enganche atencional hacia estos estímulos.

Empathic distress and concern predict aggression in toddlerhood: The moderating role of sex

Impaired empathy is an important risk factor of aggression, but results are contradictory in toddlerhood. The association between empathy and aggression may differ for empathic distress and empathic concern in response to empathy-evoking situations, and for boys and girls. Therefore, the current study investigated whether empathic distress and empathic concern at age 20 months (N = 133, 69 boys) predicted aggression at ages 20 and 30 months (N = 119, 62 boys), while taking a potential moderating effect of sex into account. Empathic behavior was observed during a distress simulation task 20 months post-partum. Physical aggression was assessed through maternal report, using the Physical Aggression Scale for Early Childhood. Linear regression analyses revealed sex differences in the associations between empathic distress and concern on the one hand and physical aggression at age 20 months on the other. Furthermore, physical aggression at age 30 months was predicted by the interaction of sex with empathic distress at age 20 months, while controlling for aggression at age 20 months. More empathic distress and concern were associated with less physical aggression in girls, but not in boys. The findings indicate that the prediction of physical aggression by empathic distress was more robust over time than for empathic concern. This study sheds new light on the intricate relationship between empathy, aggression, and sex from a developmental perspective.

Empathy and Callous-Unemotional Traits in Different Bullying Roles: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Bullying is an extremely damaging type of violence that is present in schools all over the world, but there are still many gaps in knowledge regarding different variables that might influence the phenomenon. Two promising research lines focus on empathy and callous-unemotional traits but findings from individual studies seem to be contradictory. This article reports the results of a systematic review and a meta-analysis on empathy and callous-unemotional traits in relation to school bullying based on 53 empirical reports that met the inclusion criteria. Bullying perpetration is negatively associated with cognitive (odds ratio [ OR] = 0.60) and affective ( OR = 0.51) empathy. Perpetration is also positively associated with callous-unemotional traits ( OR = 2.55). Bully-victims scored low in empathy ( OR = 0.57). There is a nonsignificant association between victimization and empathy ( OR = 0.96), while the relationship between callous-unemotional traits and victimization is significant but small ( OR = 1.66). Defenders scored high on cognitive ( OR = 2.09) and affective ( OR = 2.62) empathy. These findings should be taken into account in explaining and preventing bullying.

Is empathy one of the Big Three? Identifying its role in a dual-process model of ideology and blatant and subtle prejudice

In the field of the social psychology of prejudice, John Duckitt's Dual-Process Cognitive-Motivational Model of Ideology and Prejudice has gained a firm grounding over the past decade and a half, while empathy has become one of the most powerful predictors of prejudice, alongside right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. This study integrates empathy into the dual-process model, exploring the effects of this variable, along with the impact of personality and ideological attitudes, on prejudice in both its blatant and subtle forms. A cross-sectional research design was used to collect data from 260 university students by self-report measures. Despite its cross-sectional nature, a pattern of causal relationships was hypothesized according to experimental and longitudinal findings from previous studies. The path analysis results show that in the model fitted to the data, empathy does not have any direct impact on prejudice, although it plays a significant role in the prediction of prejudice towards a particular immigrant group. On the other hand, the dual-process model is confirmed in the explanation of blatant prejudice and, in a weaker and indirect way, of subtle prejudice; sustaining the distinctive nature of these constructs on some differential predictors and paths. In the discussion, this study proposes that when ideological and personality-based variables are both included in the model, general empathy is not so robust in the explanation of prejudice, since some of the empathetic components might become diluted among other covariates. But even so, its indirect effectiveness through personality and ideological attitudes remains relevant.

Getting angry matters: Going beyond perspective taking and empathic concern to understand bystanders' behavior in bullying

The present study examined the relations between different empathic dimensions and bystanders' behavior in bullying. Specifically, the indirect effects of empathic concern and perspective taking via empathic anger on defending and passive bystanding were tested in a sample of Italian young adolescents (N = 398; M_age = 12 years, 3 months, 47.2% girls). Path analysis confirmed the direct and indirect effects, via empathic anger, of empathic concern and perspective taking on bystanders' behavior, with the exception of the direct association between perspective taking and passive bystanding that was not significant. Our findings suggest that considering empathic anger together with empathic concern and perspective taking could help researchers to better understand the links between empathic dispositions and bystanders' behavior in bullying.

Dramatic pretend play games uniquely improve emotional control in young children

Pretense is a naturally occurring, apparently universal activity for typically developing children. Yet its function and effects remain unclear. One theorized possibility is that pretense activities, such as dramatic pretend play games, are a possible causal path to improve children's emotional development. Social and emotional skills, particularly emotional control, are critically important for social development, as well as academic performance and later life success. However, the study of such approaches has been criticized for potential bias and lack of rigor, precluding the ability to make strong causal claims. We conducted a randomized, component control (dismantling) trial of dramatic pretend play games with a low-SES group of 4-year-old children (N = 97) to test whether such practice yields generalized improvements in multiple social and emotional outcomes. We found specific effects of dramatic play games only on emotional self-control. Results suggest that dramatic pretend play games involving physicalizing emotional states and traits, pretending to be animals and human characters, and engaging in pretend scenarios in a small group may improve children's emotional control. These findings have implications for the function of pretense and design of interventions to improve emotional control in typical and atypical populations. Further, they provide support for the unique role of dramatic pretend play games for young children, particularly those from low-income backgrounds. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/2GVNcWKRHPk.

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

Recent theories posit that empathy, typically an adaptive characteristic, may be associated with internalizing problems when children are chronically exposed to mother's depression. We tested this postulation in a sample of children (N = 82, M age = 5 years). Children witnessed their mothers express sadness, anger, and happiness during a simulated phone conversation, and researchers rated children's negative affective empathy, positive affective empathy, and information-seeking (cognitive empathy) in response to their mother's emotions. The chronicity of mother's depression during the child's lifetime moderated associations between children's empathy and internalizing problems. As predicted, all three empathy measures were related to greater mother-rated internalizing problems in children of chronically (i.e., 2-3 years) depressed mothers. Greater positive empathy was related to lower internalizing problems in children of nondepressed mothers. Positive empathy may contribute to adaptive processes when mothers are not depressed, and positive, negative, and cognitive empathy may contribute to maladaptive processes when mothers are chronically depressed.

Participant roles in peer-victimization among young children in South Korea: Peer-, self-, and teacher-nominations

This study explored participant roles in aggressive behavior among 95 children aged five to seven years, in a collectivistic culture, South Korea. Using a short-term longitudinal design, three types of nomination (peer, self, and teacher) were obtained for four participant roles (aggressor, victim, defender-stop, and defender-tell) and for four types of aggression (physical, verbal, social exclusion and rumor spreading). Assessments were made of stability of participant roles over time; inter-rater concordance among informants; discriminability; and relationships with sex, and likeability. Children tended to report themselves as victim and their peers as aggressors, especially for social exclusion. Nominations for aggressor showed highest stability over time and inter-rater concordance. Social exclusion showed different characteristics from other types of aggressive behavior in terms of its frequency and inter-rater concordance of role nominations. The type of defender (defender-stop or defender-tell) had different correlates with likeability. Findings are discussed in relation to different perspectives on social exclusion, and the defender role. Some different findings related specifically to social exclusion may be related to the particular nature of aggression or wang-ta in South Korea.

The arginine vasopressin V1b receptor gene and prosociality: Mediation role of emotional empathy

The vasopressin V1b receptor (AVPR1B) gene has been shown to be closely associated with bipolar disorder and depression. However, whether it relates to positive social outcomes, such as empathy and prosocial behavior, remains unknown. This study explored the possible role of the AVPR1B gene rs28373064 in empathy and prosociality. A total of 256 men, who were genetically unrelated, non-clinical ethnic Han Chinese college students, participated in the study. Prosociality was tested by measuring the prosocial tendencies of cognitive and emotional empathy using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). The single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs28373064, was genotyped using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) analysis. The results suggest that the AVPR1B gene rs28373064 is linked to emotional empathy and prosociality. The mediation analysis indicated that the effect of the AVPR1B gene on prosociality might be mediated by emotional empathy. This study demonstrated the link between the AVPR1B gene and prosociality and provided evidence that emotional empathy might mediate the relation between the AVPR1B gene and prosociality.

Empathy as a "risky strength": a multilevel examination of empathy and risk for internalizing disorders

Learning to respond to others' distress with well-regulated empathy is an important developmental task linked to positive health outcomes and moral achievements. However, this important interpersonal skill set may also confer risk for depression and anxiety when present at extreme levels and in combination with certain individual characteristics or within particular contexts. The purpose of this review is to describe an empirically grounded theoretical rationale for the hypothesis that empathic tendencies can be "risky strengths." We propose a model in which typical development of affective and cognitive empathy can be influenced by complex interplay among intraindividual and interindividual moderators that increase risk for empathic personal distress and excessive interpersonal guilt. These intermediate states in turn precipitate internalizing problems that map onto empirically derived fear/arousal and anhedonia/misery subfactors of internalizing disorders. The intraindividual moderators include a genetically influenced propensity toward physiological hyperarousal, which is proposed to interact with genetic propensity to empathic sensitivity to contribute to neurobiological processes that underlie personal distress responses to others' pain or unhappiness. This empathic personal distress then increases risk for internalizing problems, particularly fear/arousal symptoms. In a similar fashion, interactions between genetic propensities toward negative thinking processes and empathic sensitivity are hypothesized to contribute to excess interpersonal guilt in response to others' distress. This interpersonal guilt then increases the risk for internalizing problems, especially anhedonia/misery symptoms. Interindividual moderators, such as maladaptive parenting or chronic exposure to parents' negative affect, further interact with these genetic liabilities to amplify risk for personal distress and interpersonal guilt as well as for consequent internalizing problems. Age-related increases in the heritability of depression, anxiety, and empathy-related constructs are consistent with developmental shifts toward greater influence of intraindividual moderators throughout childhood and adolescence, with interindividual moderators exerting their greatest influence during early childhood. Efforts to modulate neurobiological and behavioral expressions of genetic dysregulation liabilities and to promote adaptive empathic skills must thus begin early in development.

Empathy and involvement in bullying in children and adolescents: a systematic review

Based on the premise that bullies are deficient in empathy or even lack it completely, bullying prevention and intervention programs often include empathy training. These programs are not always as effective as they aim to be, which may be caused by a failure to acknowledge the multidimensional nature of empathy as well as its complex association with involvement in bullying. To provide a clear overview of the research on the association between empathy and involvement in bullying, this article systematically reviews 40 studies on the association of cognitive empathy (24 studies) and affective empathy (38 studies) with four categories of involvement in bullying: bullying, victimization, defending, and bystanding. The results showed that bullying was negatively associated with cognitive and-in particular-affective empathy. Victimization was negatively associated with cognitive empathy but not with affective empathy. Defending was consistently positively associated with both types of empathy. Contradictory findings were observed in bystanding, with studies reporting both negative and positive associations with cognitive empathy, and studies reporting negative and no associations with affective empathy. Together, the findings stress the importance of the distinction between cognitive and affective empathy in involvement in bullying and suggest different intervention strategies for the four types of involvement in bullying.

Annual research review: A developmental psychopathology approach to understanding callous-unemotional traits in children and adolescents with serious conduct problems

Recent research has suggested that the presence of significant levels of callous-unemotional (CU) traits designates a clinically important and etiologically distinct subgroup of children and adolescents with serious conduct problems. Based on this research, CU traits have been included in the most recent revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5th Edition (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013)--as a specifier for the diagnosis of conduct disorder. In this review, we attempt to understand CU traits within a developmental psychopathological framework. Specifically, we summarize research on the normal development of the prosocial emotions of empathy and guilt (i.e., conscience) and we illustrate how the development of CU traits can be viewed as the normal development of conscience gone awry. Furthermore, we review research on the stability of CU traits across different developmental periods and highlight factors that can influence this stability. Finally, we highlight the implications of this developmental psychopathological framework for future etiological research, for assessment and diagnostic classification, and for treatment of children with serious conduct problems.

Emotion understanding and reconciliation in overt and relational conflict scenarios among preschoolers

This study examined emotion understanding and reconciliation in 47 (24 girls) 4–6-year-old preschool children. Participants first completed emotion recognition tasks and then answered questions regarding reconciliation tendencies and affective perspective-taking in a series of overt and relational aggressive conflict scenarios. Children’s teachers reported their overt aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial behaviors in daily life. The results indicated that children’s emotion recognition ability was associated with their reconciliation tendency in both types of conflict scenarios. Furthermore, children’s affective perspective-taking in conflicts was associated with their reconciliation tendencies in the overt aggression conflict scenarios, but not in the relational aggression conflict scenarios. Additionally, we found that children’s affective perspective-taking in overt aggression conflict scenarios was associated with their daily prosocial behaviors. The results suggest that the ability of detecting and recognizing others’ emotions may facilitate conflict reconciliation and positive peer interactions.

The relationship between emotional competence and hostile/prosocial behavior in Albanian preschoolers: An exploratory study

We explored the relationship between the ascribed tendency of Albanian preschoolers’ to take on prosocial and/or hostile roles and their empathy and emotion comprehension. Participants were 63 preschoolers (3- to 6-years-old) and six teachers. Pupils’ empathy and hostile/prosocial roles were assessed via teacher reports and their emotional comprehension through a non-verbal test. The results confirmed the pattern of relationships previously found in Italian preschoolers ( Belacchi & Farina, 2010 , 2012 ) among children’s roles in bullying, developmental stage of emotion comprehension, and empathic disposition. Differences emerged regarding Albanian teachers’ attributions of roles and empathic disposition as a function of gender; they also perceived children displaying hostile behavior as having strong perspective-taking abilities. This evaluation style may be culture-specific and related to the values of a society-in-transition such as Albania.