ABSTRACT
In the present article, we investigated the contributions of maternal and paternal empathy to child socioemotional competence both directly and indirectly through parents' emotion socialization practices using data from two longitudinal studies: Study 1 (n = 122, 61 girls, M age = 33 months) and Study 2 (n = 60, 31 girls; M age = 27 months). Results indicated that parental empathy had an indirect effect on children's positive peer relations (Study 1 and Study 2) via more supportive reactions to children's negative emotions. No indirect effects of parental empathy emerged in the models examining parents' nonsupportive reactions to children's emotions, although parental empathy showed a direct association with greater child empathy (Study 2). Moreover, paths composing indirect and direct effects did not significantly differ as a function of parent gender. The findings suggest that mothers' and fathers' dispositional empathy contribute in similar ways to young children's socioemotional competence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Subject(s)
Child Development/physiology , Empathy/physiology , Parent-Child Relations , Psychosocial Functioning , Social Skills , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
We examined implications of within-person fluctuations in maternal sensitivity on child behaviors during mother-child interaction and assessed child temperament as a moderator. Mother-toddler dyads (N = 64, Mage = 27.20 months, SDage = 5.18) were observed interacting in a series of tasks over the course of a 1-hr laboratory visit, and maternal and child behaviors were rated in 60-s intervals. Parents also reported on child temperamental pleasure and anger proneness. Above and beyond between-person associations and controlling for systematic changes across tasks, associations between fluctuations in maternal sensitivity and child behaviors emerged and were moderated by child temperament. Specifically, temperamental pleasure buffered momentary decreases in maternal sensitivity. For children low (vs. high) on temperamental pleasure, decreases in maternal sensitivity in a given 60-s interval were more strongly associated with decreases in child attention to task, decreases in positive engagement with mother, and increases in child negative affect in the same interval. Additionally, for children with high (vs. low) on anger proneness, increases in maternal sensitivity in a given 60-s interval were more strongly associated with increases in child positive engagement and decreases in negative affect, and these interaction patterns provided partially support for anger proneness as a differential susceptibility factor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).
Subject(s)
Child Behavior/psychology , Mother-Child Relations/psychology , Mothers/psychology , Temperament , Adult , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Infant , MaleABSTRACT
The present study investigated maternal dispositional empathy and skin conductance level (SCL) reactivity to infant emotional cues as joint predictors of maternal sensitivity. Sixty-four mother-toddler dyads (31 boys) were observed across a series of interaction tasks during a laboratory visit, and maternal sensitivity was coded from approximately 55 minutes of observation per family. In a second, mother-only laboratory visit, maternal SCL reactivity to infant cues was assessed using a cry-laugh audio paradigm. Mothers reported on their dispositional empathy via a questionnaire. As hypothesized, mothers with greater dispositional empathy exhibited more sensitive behavior at low, but not high, levels of SCL reactivity to infant cues. Analyses examining self-reported emotional reactivity to the cry-laugh audio paradigm yielded a similar finding: Dispositional empathy was related to greater sensitivity when mothers reported low, but not high, negative emotional reactivity. Results provide support for Dix's (1991) affective model of parenting that underscores the combined contribution of the parent's empathic tendencies and his or her own emotional experience in response to child emotions. Specificity of the Empathy × Reactivity interaction is discussed with respect to the context in which reactivity was assessed (infant cry vs. laugh) and the type of sensitivity examined (sensitivity to the child's distress vs. nondistress).
