Nonrandom Acts of Kindness: Parasympathetic and Subjective Empathic Responses to Sadness Predict Children's Prosociality

Emotional elements matter: Stories about a protagonist's guilt over lying promote honesty in early elementary school children but not in preschool children

Previous research has documented the effectiveness of positive moral stories in promoting children's honesty; however, the impact of negative moral stories, particularly those incorporating different emotional elements, remains underexplored. The current studies investigated how guilt- and sadness-inducing narratives in moral stories influence children's honesty. In Study 1, we randomly assigned 166 children (aged 6-7 years) to one of four conditions: control (neutral story), negative moral story, negative moral story with sadness, or negative moral story with guilt. Using a mathematics test paradigm in which children self-reported their performance, we found that whereas a simple negative moral story did not significantly affect honesty compared with control (40.54% vs. 48.84%), incorporating guilt significantly increased honest behavior (74.42%). The negative story with sadness showed an intermediate effect (66.67%). In Study 2, we employed a card-guessing game with 85 younger children (aged 3-6 years) to test the effectiveness of guilt-inducing narratives given the higher potential to promote honesty in Study 1. The results revealed no significant difference in honest behavior between the guilt-inducing story and control conditions (38.71% vs. 50% honest reporting among peekers). The age-dependent pattern propounds that the effectiveness of guilt-based moral stories emerges during early elementary school, coinciding with children's understanding of complex moral emotions. The findings highlight the role of guilt and sadness in promoting ethical behavior among early elementary school children and have significant implications for moral education strategies.

Children's Narratives of Sad Events: Attachment Security and Psychopathological Symptoms

BACKGROUND

This study aims to explore how children's experiences of sadness are related to their coping strategies, attachment, and psychopathology.

METHOD

A sample of 517 children described a sad event and related coping strategies. Events included bullying/quarrelling, frustration, accidents/illness, experienced/anticipated separation, and loss. Coping strategies included constructive coping, disengagement, and absence-of-coping.

RESULTS

Constructive coping was associated with secure attachment. Secure children used constructive and disengagement strategies for frustration, constructive coping particularly for bullying situations, and absence-of-coping for loss. Children reporting absence-of-coping during episodes of frustration exhibited more externalizing symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

The results highlight relationships between circumstancialdimensions and specific emotional experiences, and the importance of context-specific coping strategies in promoting emotional well-being.

Kindness: Poor cousin or equal kin to Compassion and Empathy in the Healthcare Literature? A Scoping Review

OBJECTIVE

This scoping review seeks to understand how kindness, compassion and empathy are defined and conceptualised within existing healthcare services literature.

INTRODUCTION

Little consensus exists on how healthcare literature defines and conceptualises kindness. Kindness is often conflated with the terms compassion and empathy, which both have more prominence in the literature. However, evidence would suggest that all three terms are indeed different. To advance kindness as a key tenet of quality improvement and human experience outcomes in healthcare, a consensual definition must be established in the evidence base.

METHODS

We reviewed published research identified using search queries across five databases and one search engine. Studies were included in this review if the definition, measurement and/or conceptualisation of kindness, empathy and/or compassion were stated objectives of the work and the research was directly relevant to healthcare settings.

RESULTS

1348 results were screened, and with additional snowballing of some articles for relevant references, 107 progressed to full-text screening. Forty-two articles were subsequently included in this scoping review. By synthesising this evidence, we establish key commonalities and differences for kindness, compassion and empathy. We present a model for understanding how empathy, compassion and kindness can be viewed on a stimulus-response-action continuum. We also explore the definitional challenges expressed by many authors who call for these terms to be treated as separate concepts.

CONCLUSIONS

This review evidence demonstrates that kindness, compassion and empathy have clear themes that stand them apart, and they occupy different places on the stimulus-response-action continuum. Importantly, kindness deserves its own place in literature as a primary concept, not as a second tier to compassion or empathy. By comparing each term, these positions are now highlighted. They can help us to more articulately define, conceptualise and value kindness, compassion and empathy for their unique contributions to the humanity of healthcare.

Parasympathetic regulation and support from family and friends predict prosocial development in U.S. Mexican-origin adolescents

Both parasympathetic nervous system regulation and receipt of social support from close relationships contribute to prosocial development, although few studies have examined their combined influences in adolescence and particularly within racially and ethnically minoritized populations. In this longitudinal study of 229 U.S. Mexican-origin adolescents (48% female-identifying), youths reported on receipt of social support from family and friends from 10 to 16 years, had their baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) measured at 17 years, reported their prosocial behavior and completed the Mind in the Eyes test to assess cognitive empathy at 17 and 19 years, and reported their prosocial civic behavior (i.e., community activity) at 19 years. Family social support predicted prosocial behavior at 17 years, and friend social support predicted prosocial civic behavior at 19 years. Compared to youths with lower or higher baseline RSA, youths with moderate RSA reported more prosocial civic behavior, had greater cognitive empathy, and tended to report more general prosocial behavior at 19 years. The quadratic association between baseline RSA and cognitive empathy was stronger for youths with greater family social support. These findings are the first to extend the evidence that moderate baseline parasympathetic nervous system activity supports prosocial development into late adolescence and with the U.S. Mexican-origin community, and these findings address calls for more integrative biopsychosocial studies of prosociality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Basal parasympathetic deficits in C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeat expansion carriers relate to smaller frontoinsula and thalamus volume and lower empathy

Diminished basal parasympathetic nervous system activity is a feature of frontotemporal dementia that relates to left frontoinsula dysfunction and empathy impairment. Individuals with a pathogenic expansion of the hexanucleotide repeat in chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72), the most common genetic cause of frontotemporal dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, provide a unique opportunity to examine whether parasympathetic activity is disrupted in genetic forms of frontotemporal dementia and to investigate when parasympathetic deficits manifest in the pathophysiological cascade. We measured baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia, a parasympathetic measure of heart rate variability, over two minutes in a sample of 102 participants that included 19 asymptomatic expansion carriers (C9+ asymp), 14 expansion carriers with mild cognitive impairment (C9+ MCI), 16 symptomatic expansion carriers with frontotemporal dementia (C9+ FTD), and 53 expansion-negative healthy controls (C9- HC) who also underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. In follow-up analyses, we compared baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia in the C9+ FTD group with an independent age-, sex-, and clinical severity-matched group of 26 people with sporadic behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. The Frontotemporal Lobar Degeneration-modified Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes score was used to quantify behavioral symptom severity, and informant ratings on the Interpersonal Reactivity Index provided measures of participants' current emotional (empathic concern) and cognitive (perspective-taking) empathy. Results indicated that the C9+ FTD group had lower baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia than the C9+ MCI, C9+ asymp, and C9- HC groups, a deficit that was comparable to that of sporadic behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia. Linear regression analyses indicated that lower baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia was associated with worse behavioral symptom severity and lower empathic concern and perspective-taking across the C9orf72 expansion carrier clinical spectrum. Whole-brain voxel-based morphometry analyses in participants with C9orf72 pathogenic expansions found that lower baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia correlated with smaller gray matter volume in the left frontoinsula and bilateral thalamus, key structures that support parasympathetic function, and in the bilateral parietal lobes, occipital lobes, and cerebellum, regions that are also vulnerable in individuals with C9orf72 expansions. This study provides novel evidence that basal parasympathetic functioning is diminished in FTD due to C9orf72 expansions and suggests that baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia may be a potential non-invasive biomarker that is sensitive to behavioral symptoms in the early stages of disease.

Adult attachment assessed via the ASA and AAI: Empirical convergence and links with autonomic physiological responding during attachment assessments

This study examined the empirical convergence of Attachment Script Assessment (ASA) deactivation, hyperactivation, and anomalous scripts with conceptually corresponding attachment patterns assessed via the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), and the significance of ASA dimensions for autonomic physiological reactivity during adult attachment assessments. Young adults' (50% male; Mage = 19 years; 80% White/European American) ASA deactivation, hyperactivation, and anomalous content were significantly associated with AAI dismissing (r = .26-.38), preoccupied (r = .31-.35), and unresolved (r = .37) states of mind, respectively. ASA hyperactivation and anomalous content were associated with heightened RSA reactivity to the AAI and ASA, aligning with expectations that these attachment patterns capture the tendency to heighten expressions of negative, traumatic experiences. ASA deactivation was associated with smaller increases in electrodermal activity to the ASA-indicative of less sympathetic arousal-converging with the tendency of individuals higher in deactivation to avoid discussing attachment themes in the ASA.

Deactivation, hyperactivation, and anomalous content in the attachment script assessment: stability over time and significance for parenting behavior and physiology

This study examined the stability of Attachment Script Assessment (ASA) deactivation, hyperactivation, and anomalous content and their significance for parenting outcomes in mothers (Mage = 31 years; 78% White/European American) and 6-month-old infants. Comparable to ASA secure base script knowledge (SBSK), mothers' ASA deactivation, hyperactivation, and anomalous content were significantly, moderately stable over two years (r's = .40 - .43). Mothers' ASA hyperactivation and anomalous content were associated with greater maternal intrusiveness, whereas ASA deactivation was associated with greater detachment and less intrusiveness. Only ASA anomalous content was associated with lower maternal sensitivity. Mothers' ASA deactivation was associated with less dynamic change in respiratory sinus arrhythmia during the Still-Face Procedure-reflective of limited mobilization of physiological resources to support responding to infants. Findings support the validity of ASA deactivation, hyperactivation, and anomalous content scripts, and demonstrate their utility in examining adult attachment stability and predictive significance for parent-child outcomes.

Vagal flexibility to negative emotions moderates the relations between environmental risk and adjustment problems in childhood

Neurobiological and social-contextual influences shape children's adjustment, yet limited biopsychosocial studies have integrated temporal features when modeling physiological regulation of emotion. This study explored whether a common underlying pattern of non-linear change in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) across emotional scenarios characterized 4-6 year-old children's parasympathetic reactivity (N = 180). Additionally, we tested whether dynamic RSA reactivity was an index of neurobiological susceptibility or a diathesis in the association between socioeconomic status, authoritarian parenting, and the development of externalizing problems (EP) and internalizing problems over two years. There was a shared RSA pattern across all emotions, characterized by more initial RSA suppression and a subsequent return toward baseline, which we call vagal flexibility (VF). VF interacted with parenting to predict EP. More authoritarian parenting predicted increased EP two years later only when VF was low; conversely, when VF was very high, authoritarian mothers reported that their children had fewer EP. Altogether, children's patterns of dynamic RSA change to negative emotions can be characterized by a higher order factor, and the nature by which VF contributes to EP depends on maternal socialization practices, with low VF augmenting and high VF buffering children against the effects of authoritarian parenting.

Social gaze behavior and hyperarousal in young females with fragile X syndrome: A within-person approach

Children with fragile X syndrome (FXS) often avoid eye contact, a behavior that is potentially related to hyperarousal. Prior studies, however, have focused on between-person associations rather than coupling of within-person changes in gaze behaviors and arousal. In addition, there is debate about whether prompts to maintain eye contact are beneficial for individuals with FXS. In a study of young females (ages 6-16), we used eye tracking to assess gaze behavior and pupil dilation during social interactions in a group with FXS (n = 32) and a developmentally similar comparison group (n = 23). Participants engaged in semi-structured conversations with a female examiner during blocks with and without verbal prompts to maintain eye contact. We identified a social-behavioral and psychophysiological profile that is specific to females with FXS; this group exhibited lower mean levels of eye contact, significantly increased mean pupil dilation during conversations that included prompts to maintain eye contact, and showed stronger positive coupling between eye contact and pupil dilation. Our findings strengthen support for the perspective that gaze aversion in FXS reflects negative reinforcement of social avoidance behavior. We also found that behavioral skills training may improve eye contact, but maintaining eye contact appears to be physiologically taxing for females with FXS.

Awe Sparks Prosociality in Children

Rooted in the novel and the mysterious, awe is a common experience in childhood, but research is almost silent with respect to the import of this emotion for children. Awe makes individuals feel small, thereby shifting their attention to the social world. Here, we studied the effects of art-elicited awe on children's prosocial behavior toward an out-group and its unique physiological correlates. In two preregistered studies (Study 1: N = 159, Study 2: N = 353), children between 8 and 13 years old viewed movie clips that elicited awe, joy, or a neutral (control) response. Children who watched the awe-eliciting clip were more likely to spend their time on an effortful task (Study 1) and to donate their experimental earnings (Studies 1 and 2), all toward benefiting refugees. They also exhibited increased respiratory sinus arrhythmia, an index of parasympathetic nervous system activation associated with social engagement. We discuss implications for fostering prosociality by reimagining children's environments to inspire awe at a critical age.

The significance of mothers' attachment representations for vagal responding during interactions with infants

Little is known about the significance of mothers' attachment for neurobiological responding during interactions with infants. To address this gap, this study examined links between mothers' (N = 139) attachment representations and dynamic change in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) while interacting with infants in the Still-Face Procedure (SFP). Mothers higher on secure base script knowledge (SBSK) exhibited greater RSA reactivity during the SFP characterized by lower RSA during normal play, higher RSA during the still-face, and lower RSA during reunion. Findings indicate that mothers higher on SBSK exhibit RSA responding expected to support active behavioral coping during normal play and reunion - consistent with the need to engage infants in social interaction - and RSA responding during the still-face expected to support efforts to calm the body and empathize with their infant during this distressing social disruption. Findings advance knowledge of the significance of adult attachment for the neurobiology of caregiving.

Heart rate variability moderates the effects of COVID-19-related stress and family adversity on emotional problems in adolescents: Testing models of differential susceptibility and diathesis stress

The COVID-19 pandemic is a unique period of stress, uncertainty, and adversity that will have significant implications for adolescent mental health. Nevertheless, stress and adversity related to COVID-19 may be more consequential for some adolescents' mental health than for others. We examined whether heart rate variability (HRV) indicated differential susceptibility to mental health difficulties associated with COVID-19 stress and COVID-19 family adversity. Approximately 4 years prior to the pandemic, we assessed resting HRV and HRV reactivity to a well-validated stress paradigm in 87 adolescents. During the pandemic, these adolescents (ages 13-19) reported on their health-related stress and concerns about COVID-19, family adversity related to COVID-19, and their recent emotional problems. The association between COVID-19 stress and emotional problems was significantly stronger for adolescents who previously exhibited higher resting HRV or higher HRV reactivity. For adolescents who exhibited lower resting HRV or HRV augmentation, COVID-19 stress was not associated with emotional problems. Conversely, lower resting HRV indicated vulnerability to the effect of COVID-19 family adversity on emotional problems. Different patterns of parasympathetic functioning may reflect differential susceptibility to the effects of COVID-19 stress versus vulnerability to the effects of COVID-19 family adversity on mental health during the pandemic.

Two Routes to Status, One Route to Health: Trait Dominance and Prestige Differentially Associate with Self-reported Stress and Health in Two US University Populations

Objective

Social status has been extensively linked to stress and health outcomes. However, two routes by which status can be earned - dominance and prestige - may not uniformly relate to lower stress and better health because of inherent behavioral and stress-exposure differences in these two routes.

Methods

In one exploratory and two preregistered studies, participants (total N = 978) self-reported their trait dominance and prestige and self-reported several stress and health outcomes.

Results

The meta-effects evident across the three studies indicate that higher trait dominance was associated with worse outcomes - higher stress, poorer physical and mental health, poorer behavioral health, poorer life satisfaction, higher negative affect (range of absolute values of non-zero correlations, |r| = [0.074, 0.315], ps < 0.021) - and higher trait prestige was associated with better outcomes - lower stress, better physical and mental health, better behavioral health, better life satisfaction, higher positive and lower negative mood (|r| = [0.134, 0.478], ps < 0.001). These effects remained evident (with few exceptions) after controlling for socioeconomic status, other status-relevant traits, or self-enhancing motives; associations with behavior relevant to the COVID19 pandemic generally were not robust.

Conclusions

This work indicates that evolved traits related to the preferred route by which status is earned likely impact self-reported stress and health outcomes. Future research is necessary to examine physiological and other objective indicators of stress and health in more diverse populations.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40750-022-00199-3.

Empathy and Anxiety in Young Girls with Fragile X Syndrome

We tested whether empathy is impaired and associated with anxiety in girls with fragile X syndrome (FXS). We measured parent-reported empathy and self-reported anxiety in young girls with FXS and in a developmentally-matched comparison group. Girls with FXS received higher parent-reported scores on cognitive and affective empathy but also self-reported more severe anxiety symptoms, particularly separation anxiety and phobia symptoms, than girls in the comparison group. Girls with FXS who received higher cognitive empathy scores, however, appeared buffered against risk for separation anxiety and phobia symptoms. Girls with FXS experience elevated empathy and anxiety relative to their developmentally-matched peers. Higher cognitive empathy in girls with FXS may indicate resilience against specific forms of anxiety that are commonly observed in FXS.

Context is key: Parasympathetic regulation in the classroom differentially predicts preschoolers' socially competent behaviors

Research shows that children's early social competence predicts their later academic and interpersonal success. Accordingly, early childhood education programs increasingly aim to evaluate and support children's social skill development. Despite ample theoretical and empirical work demonstrating the role of the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) in supporting neurophysiological processes that underlie social behaviors, no study has explicitly tested whether the assessment of PNS activity in childhood educational settings provides insight into children's social functioning. The current study addresses this gap by examining the influence of context-specific PNS regulation, assessed via respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), in predicting preschool children's socially competent behavior toward peers in the classroom. Results showed that: (1) RSA withdrawal (e.g., decreases relative to a baseline task) during unstructured classroom activities predicted children's socially competent behaviors during these unstructured activities but not during structured activities, whereas (2) withdrawal during structured classroom activities predicted children's socially competent behaviors during structured activities. These results indicate that PNS activity makes context-specific contributions to children's social behaviors and highlight the importance of assessing neurophysiological regulation in context.

A psychophysiological investigation of mourning: There are two sides to the story

Mourning constitutes an important human emotion, which might cause—among other things—major depressive symptoms when lasting for too long. To date, no study investigated whether mourning is related to specific psychophysiological activation patterns. Therefore, we examined physiological reactions induced by iconographic mourning-related stimuli in comparison to neutral and attachment stimuli in healthy adults (N = 77, mean age: 21.9). We evaluated pupillometric and eye-tracking parameters as well as heart rate variability (HRV) and skin conductance (EDA). Eye-tracking revealed a stronger dilated pupil during mourning in comparison to the neutral, but not to the attachment condition; furthermore, fixation patterns revealed less fixations on mourning stimuli. While HF HRV was reduced during mourning and attachment, we found no differences concerning EDA parameters between conditions. Results suggest specific eye-movement and pupil adaptations during representations of mourning, which might point toward inward cognition or avoidance, but no specific physiological pattern concerning HRV and EDA.

Autonomic Nervous System Inflexibility During Parent-child Interactions is Related to Callous-unemotional Traits in Youth Aged 10-14 Years Old

Youth with callous-unemotional (CU) traits are at high risk for aggression and antisocial behavior. Extant literature suggests that CU traits are related to abnormal autonomic responses to negatively-valenced emotional stimuli, although few studies have tested autonomic responding specifically during social interactions. To address this knowledge gap, the current study tested whether CU traits were related to autonomic activity, assessed via respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), during several parent-child interaction tasks designed to provoke negative emotion. The sample was 162 clinically referred youth (M age = 12.03, SD = .92; 47% female). Using piecewise latent growth models, we estimated individual differences in RSA during three semi-structured social interaction tasks (reading aloud to a parent and research assistant; a recovery period from the reading task; and a parent-child conflict discussion) and tested whether CU traits were related to patterns of RSA responding across tasks. Overall, youth showed expected RSA decreases during the reading period, increases in RSA during recovery, and further decreases during the conflict discussion. However, youth with clinically-elevated CU traits had a different pattern of RSA change across tasks, such that CU traits were related to significantly less RSA change during reading and recovery. Findings suggest that less RSA engagement during social interactions and less RSA recovery may be a biomarker of CU traits. Future research is needed to examine whether this inflexibility contributes to the development of CU traits beginning early in childhood.

Association Between Dynamic Parasympathetic Reactivity to Frustration and Children's Social Success with Peers in Kindergarten

The inability to regulate affective arousal in the context of frustration may jeopardize children's ability to form successful friendships, especially as new peer groups are formed during the transition to kindergarten. While substantial research has utilized teacher reports of children's socioemotional behavior, there is less empirical evidence on the peer perspective. The present study utilized data from n = 235 kindergarteners (54% high in disruptive behavior) recruited for a multicomponent intervention. We examined whether physiological reactivity to frustration was associated with children's social success. Peer nominations of liking or disliking to play with the child were used to compute a social preference score, where negative values reflect greater rejection than acceptance. Multilevel growth modeling was employed to capture changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) reactivity across a manipulated inhibitory control task administered in 3 blocks, with differing algorithms embedded to induce affect: points were earned in the 1st and 3rd blocks (reward) and lost during the 2nd block (frustration). Groups did not differ in RSA reactivity during the 1st block, but children who experience greater peer rejection showed significant decreases in RSA (increases in arousal) across frustration. This increased arousal persisted across the 3rd block despite the reinstatement of reward, indicating a greater degree of reactivity and a lack of recovery relative to peer-accepted children. Teacher screenings of disruptive behavior only partially aligned with peer ratings of acceptance, highlighting the benefits of leveraging peer report to capture regulatory functioning and identify children for intervention recruitment.

Opportunities for free play and young children's autonomic regulation

Aspects of the social environment have been linked to the physiological mechanisms underlying behavioral self-regulation. Play, a behavior connected to regulatory behaviors such as delay of gratification and regulation of emotions, might be an aspect of social environments that is supportive of healthy physiological adaptation. We examined whether opportunities for social free play with peers, as reported by mothers, would predict children's autonomic regulation (via respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) in a sample of 78 five-year-old children. As a proxy for play experience generally, frequency of social free play in the past week predicted higher levels of RSA functioning across both baseline and stress conditions, but did not account for physiological rate of change between conditions. Thus, frequent social free play opportunities might be a general positive influence on children's autonomic regulation by supporting increased parasympathetic activation but not a significant influence on children's response to stress in the moment. Attention to the role of play in autonomic regulation is critical, as children's free play opportunities might be declining.

Development of a measure of kindness

In the spirit of the growing developments in positive psychology, there is an increasing interest in how kind people are to each other. Yet, this area lacks any strong psychometric instrument. An initial exploratory study demonstrated that a 40-item questionnaire, completed by 165 people, revealed distinct aspects of kindness when subjected to multivariate analysis. A subsequent study is reported, using the structure of the exploratory results to further clarify the conceptual framework (Study 1). The revised 45-item questionnaire was administered to 1039 individuals from the general British population. Smallest Space Analysis of the variables, supported by Factor analysis, confirmed the hypothesis of two facets to kindness, the psychological source of the action (from principles or empathy), and the form of expression (through psychological involvement or following social prescription. It also revealed an additional general, core kindness, labelled Anthropophilia. Reliable scales derived from the combinations of the two elements from each facet were identified: Affective-Socially Prescribed; Affective-Proactive; Principle-Socially Prescribed and Principle-Proactive. Intercorrelations between the scales revealed that they measure different modes of kindness. Comparisons between male and female respondents provided external validity for the questionnaire. Study 2 (N = 251) reported that the scales measure independent dimensions when correlated with similar and dissimilar concepts.

Interpretation biases and depressive symptoms among anxiety-disordered children: The role of individual differences in respiratory sinus arrhythmia

Individual differences in interpretation biases-the tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli as threatening-partially explain the presence of comorbid depressive symptoms among anxious youth. Increasing efforts have examined physiological processes that influence the association between interpretation biases and depressive symptoms in this population, and potential gender differences in this relationship. This study examined the moderating role of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) suppression (i.e., decrease from baseline)-an index of parasympathetic nervous system reactivity-in the association between interpretation biases and depressive symptoms in clinically anxious youth. One-hundred-and-five clinically anxious children (Mage  = 10.09 years, SD = 1.22; 56.7% female; 61.9% racial/ethnic minority) completed measures of self-reported and behaviorally indexed interpretation biases, reported anxiety/depression symptom severity, and participated in a speech task. RSA suppression during the task moderated the association between interpretation biases and depressive symptom severity in the total sample. Separate exploratory moderation analyses were conducted among girls and boys. Among girls, RSA suppression moderated the association between behaviorally indexed interpretation biases and depressive symptoms, and marginally moderated (p = .067) the association between self-reported interpretation biases and depressive symptoms. Among boys, RSA suppression was not a significant moderator. These findings may help identify clinically anxious youth most at-risk for comorbid depressive symptoms.

Maternal dynamic respiratory sinus arrhythmia during toddlers' interactions with novelty

Maternal psychophysiological responses to toddlers' distress to novelty may have important implications for parenting during early childhood that are relevant to children's eventual development of social withdrawal and anxiety. Likely, these responses depend on intrapersonal, interpersonal, and contextual factors. The current study investigated the time course of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) across two laboratory novelty episodes, one low threat and one moderate threat, in 120 mothers of 2-year-old toddlers. Growth models tested context differences in and correlates of dynamic patterns of RSA. Dynamic patterns differed between tasks and according to mothers' perceptions of and distress about toddler shyness. Thus, changes in mothers' RSA across toddlers' interactions with novelty seem to depend on the context as well as how mothers perceive and respond to their toddlers' shyness.

Children's altruism following acute stress: The role of autonomic nervous system activity and social support

Altruistic behavior after stress exposure may have important health and psychological benefits, in addition to broader societal consequences. However, so far experimental research on altruism following acute stress has been limited to adult populations. The current study utilized an experimental design to investigate how altruistic donation behavior among children may be influenced by (a) exposure to an acute social stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test modified for use with children (TSST-M), (b) individual differences in stress physiology, and (c) social support from a parent. The sample consisted of 180 children (54.9% male, 45.1% female; mean age = 9.92 years, SD = 0.56 years) randomly assigned to one of three conditions involving the TSST-M: (a) prepare for the TSST-M alone, (b) prepare for the TSST-M with a parent, and (c) no-stress control group. Results revealed that children made larger donations post-stressor if they were alone before the acute stressor, if they had moderate cardiac autonomic balance, reflecting both parasympathetic and sympathetic influence, and if they were older. Children who prepared for the TSST-M with social support from a parent made comparable donations as children in the no-stress control group, in accord with stress buffering models. Increased altruism following acute stress among children suggests that a comprehensive understanding of the human stress response needs to incorporate "tend-and-befriend" behavior-the tendency for humans to show increased altruistic behavior during times of distress.

Emotion regulation of others' positive and negative emotions is related to distinct patterns of heart rate variability and situational empathy

Although emotion regulation has been proposed to be crucial for empathy, investigations on emotion regulation have been primarily limited to intrapersonal processes, leaving the interpersonal processes of self-regulation rather unexplored. Moreover, studies showed that emotion regulation and empathy are related with increased autonomic activation. How emotion regulation and empathy are related at the autonomic level, and more specifically during differently valenced social situations remains an open question. Healthy adults viewed a series of short videos illustrating a target who was expressing positive, negative, or no emotions during a social situation (Positive, Negative, or Neutral Social Scenes). Prior to each video, participants were instructed to reappraise their own emotions (Up-regulation, Down-regulation, or No-regulation). To assess autonomic activation, RR intervals (RRI), high frequency (HF) components of heart rate variability (HRV), and electrodermal activity phasic responses (EDRs) were calculated. Situational empathy was measured through a visual analogue scale. Participants rated how empathic they felt for a specific target. Up- and Down-regulation were related to an increase and a decrease in situational empathy and an increase in RRI and HF, respectively, compared to the control condition (No-regulation). This suggests increased activity of the parasympathetic branch during emotion regulation of situational empathic responses. Positive compared to Negative Social Scenes were associated with decreased situational empathy, in addition to a slightly but non-significantly increased HF. Altogether, this study demonstrates that emotion regulation may be associated with changes in situational empathy and autonomic responses, preferentially dominated by the parasympathetic branch and possibly reflecting an increase of regulatory processes. Furthermore, the current study provides evidence that empathy for different emotional valences is associated with distinct changes in situational empathy and autonomic responses.

The Development of Generosity From 4 to 6 Years: Examining Stability and the Biopsychosocial Contributions of Children's Vagal Flexibility and Mothers' Compassion

Individual differences in children’s prosocial behaviors, including their willingness to give up something of value for the benefit of others, are rooted in physiological and environmental processes. In a sample of 4-year-old children, we previously found evidence that flexible changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) were linked to donation behavior, and that these physiological patterns may support greater sensitivity to the positive effects of compassionate parenting on donation behavior. The current study focused on a follow-up assessment of these children at age 6. First, we examined the stability of individual differences in donation behavior and related parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity from age 4 to 6. Second, we examined associations between donation behavior and RSA at 6 years. Third, we examined whether the association between children’s RSA and donation behavior at age 6 varied depending on mothers’ compassionate love. We found low to modest stability in donation behavior and RSA reactivity from age 4 to 6. These findings provide preliminary evidence that stable individual differences in altruism, as reflected by generosity, and in some aspects of parasympathetic functioning during opportunities to be prosocial, emerge in childhood. In addition, we found that some of the same associations between donation behavior, RSA, and compassionate love that we previously observed in children at 4 years of age continued to be evident 2 years later at age 6. Greater decreases in RSA when given the opportunity to donate were associated with children donating more of their own resources which, in turn, were associated with greater RSA recovery after the task. Lastly, mothers’ compassionate love was positively associated with donation behavior in children who demonstrated stronger decreases in RSA during the task; compassionate parenting and RSA reactivity may serve as external and internal supports for prosociality that build on each other. Taken together, these findings contribute to the perspectives that individual differences in altruistic behaviors are intrinsically linked to healthy vagal flexibility, and that biopsychosocial approaches provide a useful framework for examining and understanding the environmental and physiological processes underlying these individual differences.

Preschoolers' dynamic respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) change during a challenging parent-child interactive task: Relations with preschoolers' socioemotional health

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) is a biomarker of physiological functioning that has been implicated in self-regulatory processes and shown to relate to children's socioemotional health. RSA is a dynamic process reflecting an individual's response to their environment; thus, temporally sensitive methods are critical to better understanding this self-regulatory process in different contexts. Prior work has studied young children's RSA change in the context of emotion clips and interactions with a stranger. The present study meaningfully expanded upon this work by examining: (a) preschoolers' dynamic RSA change during a challenging task with their mothers, and (b) factors that may explain variability in children's dynamic RSA change. Preschoolers (N = 108; M_age  = 3.56 years) and their mothers from diverse backgrounds completed a challenging activity together while children's physiological activity was monitored. Mothers reported on children's positive affect, parent emotional support, and family cohesion and indicators of socioemotional health. Children's positive affect and family cohesion explained variability in children's dynamic RSA change, which concurrently related to better socioemotional health. This study advances research and theory on biological correlates implicated in the development of children's self-regulation and furthers our understanding of factors that may support children's developing self-regulation at the physiological level.

Inducing empathy affects cardiovascular reactivity reflected in changes in high-frequency heart rate variability

Empathy represents an emotional trigger of prosocial emotions and social engagement behaviour as previous research demonstrates. Departing from literature indicating that parasympathetic mechanisms are associated with the preparation of social engagement behaviour, the present research investigates how feeling with another person affects empathising individuals' cardiovascular reactivity reflecting influences of parasympathetic mechanisms. Specifically, individuals' high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV) while being instructed to feel with a target person in need reacting with a specific emotional response to a need-causing event (with anger or sadness) was investigated. Results of one experiment (N = 124) revealed that inducing empathy with needy target persons results in increases of HF-HRV - irrespective of their emotional reaction. No relation between cardiovascular indices and self-reported prosocial behaviour was found. Accordingly, these findings indicate that inducing empathy affects phasic vagal activity implied by parasympathetic mechanisms whereas the association of cardiovascular reactivity and social engagement behaviour needs further investigation.

Empathy as a buffer: How empathy moderates the emotional effects on Preschoolers' sharing

This study experimentally investigated how empathy moderated the influence of external emotional stimuli on preschoolers' subsequent sharing behaviour. Children aged 4-6 (N = 218) were randomly presented with one of the video clips that elicited sad, happy, or neutral emotion, and were then asked to play a dictator game with puppet partners. Results revealed that compared to the neutral condition, children with higher empathy increased sharing after induced happiness but did not change sharing after induced sadness; by contrast, children with lower empathy decreased sharing after induced sadness. It appears that empathy may enhance the positive effect of happiness while reducing the negative effect of sadness on sharing behaviour. These findings provide experimental evidence in early childhood to support approaches that emphasize the role of immediate emotions in moral decision-making; critically, such emotional effects vary with individual differences in dispositional empathy.

Infant emotional responses to challenge predict empathic behavior in toddlerhood

Although emotional responses are theorized to be important in the development of empathy, findings regarding the prediction of early empathic behavior by infant behavioral and physiological responses are mixed. This study examined whether behavioral and physiological responses to mild emotional challenge (still face paradigm and car seat task) in 118 infants at age 6 months predicted empathic distress and empathic concern in response to an empathy-evoking task (i.e, experimenter's distress simulation) at age 20 months. Correlation analyses, corrected for sex and baseline levels of physiological arousal, showed that stronger physiological and behavioral responses to emotional challenge at age 6 months were positively related to observed empathic distress, but not empathic concern, at age 20 months. Linear regression analyses indicated that physiological and behavioral responses to challenge at 6 months independently predicted empathic distress at 20 months, which suggests an important role for both physiological and behavioral emotional responses in empathy development. In addition, curvilinear regression analyses showed quadratic associations between behavioral responses at 6 months, and empathic distress and empathic concern at 20 months, which indicates that moderate levels of behavioral responsivity predict the highest levels of empathic distress and empathic concern.

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.

Right Temporoparietal Junction Involvement in Autonomic Responses to the Suffering of Others: A Preliminary Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Study

Functional neuroimaging studies have emphasized distinct networks for social cognition and affective aspects of empathy. However, studies have not considered whether substrates of social cognition, such as the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ), play a role in affective responses to complex empathy-related stimuli. Here, we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to test whether the right TPJ contributes to psychophysiological responses to another person’s emotional suffering. We used a theory of mind functional localizer and image-guided TMS to target the sub-region of the right TPJ implicated in social cognition, and measured autonomic and subjective responses to an empathy induction video. We found evidence that TMS applied at 1 Hz over the right TPJ increased withdrawal of parasympathetic nervous system activity during the empathy induction (n = 32), but did not affect sympathetic nervous system activity (n = 27). Participants who received TMS over the right TPJ also reported feeling more irritation and annoyance, and were less likely to report feeling compassion over and above empathic sadness, than participants who received TMS over the vertex (N = 34). This study provides preliminary evidence for the role of right TPJ functioning in empathy-related psychophysiological and affective responding, potentially blurring the distinction between neural regions specific to social cognition vs. affective aspects of empathy.

Children's physiological reactivity in emotion contexts and prosocial behavior

INTRODUCTION

Building on prior evidence that prosocial behavior is related to the regulation of personal distress in difficult situations, and given that physiological regulation is a central contributor to effective emotion regulation, this investigation evaluated whether and how children's autonomic nervous system (ANS) reactivity during emotion challenges influenced later expressions of prosocial behavior.

METHODS

The current study utilized a diverse sample of school-aged children (N = 169; 47.9% female; 47.3% Latinx) to evaluate relations between children's parasympathetic (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA) and sympathetic (i.e., pre-ejection period; PEP) reactivity in response to each of three film-elicited emotion challenges (i.e., sadness, happiness, and fear) at age 7 and both observed and parent-reported prosocial behavior one year later.

RESULTS

Children's parasympathetic reactivity to a film eliciting sadness evidenced a nonlinear relation with later prosocial sharing such that children who evidenced either RSA withdrawal or augmentation in response to the sad emotion challenge engaged in higher levels of prosocial behavior than children who evidenced relatively low or absent reactivity. Parasympathetic reactivity to films eliciting happiness or fear was not significantly related to later prosocial behavior. Likewise, children's sympathetic reactivity in response to the emotion challenges did not significantly predict later prosocial behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings provide preliminary support for a nonlinear association between children's parasympathetic emotion reactivity and later prosocial behavior, and suggest that children's ANS regulation in sad emotion contexts may be particularly important for understanding prosocial development.

Acute stress impairs children's sustained attention with increased vulnerability for children of mothers reporting higher parenting stress

Despite evidence that acute stress impairs attention in adults, there has been minimal research in children. Here, the effects of acute stress on Go/No-go performance were examined in young children (M age = 5.41 years). Given the critical role of the parent-child relationship to children's self-regulatory development, the extent to which parenting stress predicts children's cognitive vulnerability to acute stress and autonomic reactivity was also investigated. A between-groups design (n = 58 stress, n = 26 control) was used with oversampling of the stressor-exposed children to examine individual differences. The Parenting Stress Index and subscales were employed as a measure of parenting stress. Acute stress impaired children's sustained attention, but not inhibitory control. Higher parenting stress was associated with vulnerability to attentional impairment. Parenting distress was also positively associated with sympathetic reactivity to acute stress, but neither sympathetic nor parasympathetic reactivity was associated with attentional impairment. A conceptual model of pathways through which repetitive acute stress may contribute to self-regulatory difficulties is presented, including the potential buffering role of caregivers.

Cardiac vagal regulation in infancy predicts executive function and social competence in preschool: Indirect effects through language

Parasympathetic nervous system functioning in infancy may serve a foundational role in the development of cognitive and socioemotional skills (Calkins, 2007). In this study (N = 297), we investigated the potential indirect effects of cardiac vagal regulation in infancy on children's executive functioning and social competence in preschool via expressive and receptive language in toddlerhood. Vagal regulation was assessed at 10 months during two attention conditions (social, nonsocial) via task-related changes in respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). A path analysis revealed that decreased RSA from baseline in the nonsocial condition and increased RSA in the social condition were related to larger vocabularies in toddlerhood. Additionally, children's vocabulary sizes were positively related to their executive function and social competence in preschool. Indirect effects from vagal regulation in both contexts to both 4-year outcomes were significant, suggesting that early advances in language may represent a mechanism through which biological functioning in infancy impacts social and cognitive functioning in childhood.

Facial emotion perception in patients with epilepsy: A systematic review with meta-analysis

Facial emotion perception is a fundamental social competency relying on a specialised, yet distributed, neural network. This review aimed to determine whether patients with epilepsy have facial emotion perception accuracy impairments overall, or for a subset of emotions (anger, disgust, happiness, sadness, fear, and surprise), and the relationship to epilepsy type, demographic/treatment variables, and brain organisation. Database searches used PRISMA guidelines with strict inclusion/exclusion criteria. Thirty included studies assessed patients with temporal lobe (TLE; n=709), frontocentral (FCE; n=22), and genetic generalised (GGE; n=48) epilepsy. Large deficits emerged in patients with epilepsy compared to controls (n=746; Hedges' g=0.908-1.076). Patients with TLE were significantly impaired on all emotions except surprise; patients with GGE were significantly impaired in anger, disgust, and fear perception. Meta-regression of patients with TLE revealed younger age at testing was associated with lower accuracy. This review provides evidence for marked global deficits of emotion perception in epilepsy, with differential emotion-specific impairment patterns in patients with TLE and GGE.

Physiological mechanisms of prosociality

Psychophysiological perspectives can provide unique insights into the nature and motivations of children's prosociality and inform our understanding of individual differences. Here, I review current research on prosociality involving some of the most common physiological measures in developmental psychology, including cortisol, various sympathetic nervous system measures, and high-frequency heart rate variability. The literature has been quite mixed, in part because the link between physiology and prosociality is context-dependent and person-dependent. However, recent advances are refining our understanding of the basic physiological mechanisms of prosociality. Resting physiology that contributes to a balance of regulation and vigilance prepares children to effectively cope with future social challenges, like noticing and attending to the needs of others. Experiencing some arousal is an important aspect of empathy-related responding, but physiological patterns of both heightened and hypoarousal can undermine prosociality. Physiological flexibility in response to others' needs may support emotional and behavioral flexibility important for prosociality.

Moderate baseline vagal tone predicts greater prosociality in children

Vagal tone is widely believed to be an important physiological aspect of emotion regulation and associated positive behaviors. However, there is inconsistent evidence for relations between children's baseline vagal tone and their helpful or prosocial responses to others (Hastings & Miller, 2014). Recent work in adults suggests a quadratic association (inverted U-shape curve) between baseline vagal tone and prosociality (Kogan et al., 2014). The present research examined whether this nonlinear association was evident in children. The authors found consistent evidence for a quadratic relation between vagal tone and prosociality across 3 samples of children using 6 different measures. Compared to low and high vagal tone, moderate vagal tone in early childhood concurrently predicted greater self-reported prosociality (Study 1), observed empathic concern in response to the distress of others and greater generosity toward less fortunate peers (Study 2), and longitudinally predicted greater self-, mother-, and teacher-reported prosociality 5.5 years later in middle childhood (Study 3). Taken together, the findings suggest that moderate vagal tone at rest represents a physiological preparedness or tendency to engage in different forms of prosociality across different contexts. Early moderate vagal tone may reflect an optimal balance of regulation and arousal that helps prepare children to sympathize, comfort, and share with others. (PsycINFO Database Record