Relations among White (non-Latinx) children's empathy-related responding, prosocial behaviors, and racial attitudes toward White and Black peers were examined. In 2017, 190 (54% boys) White 5- to 9-year-old children (M = 7.09 years, SD = 0.94) watched a series of videos that depicted social rejection of either a White or Black child.…

In this commentary, I delineate several questions raised by the Hammond and Drummond (2019) paper: (a) to why there seems to be an association between state positive emotion and prosocial behavior in young children, and if and how early positively tinged prosocial behavior provides a pathway to (b) later prosocial behavior more generally…

The purpose of the study was to examine associations between mothers' socialization practices in childhood and adolescence and offsprings' (N = 32, 16 female) sympathy/concern in early adulthood. Mothers reported on their socialization practices and beliefs a total of 6 times using a Q-sort during their offsprings' childhood…

We examined stability and change in prosocial moral reasoning (PRM) assessed longitudinally at ages 20/21, 22/23, 24/25, 26/27, and 31/32 years (N = 32; 16 female) using a pencil-and-paper measure of moral reasoning and examined relations of PRM and prosocial behavior with one another and with empathy, sympathy measured with self- and friend…

Indices of physiological regulation (i.e., resting respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA] and RSA suppression) and observed fearfulness were tested as predictors of empathy-related reactions to an unfamiliar person's simulated distress within and across 18 (T1, N = 247) and 30 (T2, N = 216) months of age. Controlling for T1 helping, high RSA…

Discusses research on the role of individual differences in emotionality and regulation in empathy-related responding (sympathy and personal distress). Links sympathy to intense emotionality and high regulation. Empathy-related responding is better predicted by a combination of emotionality and regulation than by either separately. Examples are…

Investigates developmental change and gender differences in sympathy and personal distress reactions in children. Examines interrelations among indexes used to assess sympathy and personal distress. (PCB)

Concurrent and longitudinal relations among parental emotional expressivity, children's sympathy and children's prosocial behavior were assessed with correlations and structural equation modeling when the children were 55-97 months old (N = 214; M age = 73 months, SD = 9.59) and eight years later (N = 130; ages 150-195 months old, M = 171 months,…

In this study, the linear and interactive relations of children's effortful control and parents' emotional expressivity to children's empathy-related responses were examined. Participants were 214 children, 4.5 to 8 years old. Children's effortful control was negatively related to their personal distress and was positively related to their…

Examined the concurrent and cross-time relations of parents' warmth and positive expressivity to elementary school children's situational facial and self-reported empathic responding, social competence, and externalizing problems. Found that parents' positive expressivity mediated the relation between parental warmth and children's empathy, and…

Examined relations of maternal characteristics and child-rearing practices and children's vicarious emotional responses to kindergartners' and third graders' comforting of a crying infant. Found that children's emotional states were related to their comforting behavior, and girls' comforting and helping behaviors were related to several maternal…

Involving 82 preschool children and grade 2 students, a study was conducted to (1) determine whether heart rate, facial, and self-report indices could be used to differentiate between different vicariously induced negative emotional states; (2) examine developmental differences in the degree of differentiation; and (3) assess the pattern of…

The relation of prosocial behavior of 53 preschoolers to different modes of vicarious emotional responses was examined. Videotapes were used to elicit empathy, whereas vicarious emotional responses and defensive behaviors were assessed by means of self-report, facial, and heart-rate indexes. (SH)

Third and sixth graders were induced to experience sympathy and distress with procedures to examine: possibility that facial and heart-rate markers and self-report indices could differentiate sympathetic and distress reactions; age and sex differences in markers of response modes; relations of empathy, parental attitudes toward expression of…

Examined prosocial moral reasoning in children during an 11-year period. Found that (1) hedonistically oriented reasoning declined until adolescence; (2) reasoning based on others' needs increased until early adolescence and then declined; and (3) girls' overall reasoning was higher than boys'. Found some association of prosocial reasoning with…