Top

Journal of Child and Family Studies

Gepubliceerd in:

11-12-2019 | Original Paper

The Mediating Effect of Empathy on the Relation Between Child Self-Expressiveness in Family and Prosocial Behaviors

Auteurs: Eui Kyung Kim, Sukkyung You, Jerica Knox

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Child and Family Studies | Uitgave 6/2020

Abstract

Objective

The present study aimed to examine children’s self-expressivity in family and its relation to social emotional competence. Specifically, we examined the mediating effects of empathy on the relations between child self-expressivity in family and prosocial behaviors.

Methods

A sample of 982 (63% female) 7–9th grade students in Seoul, South Korea were given a survey, which measured self-expressivity in family, cognitive and affective empathy, and PSB towards strangers and acquaintances. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the hypothesized structural relationships among latent variables.

Results

Results indicated that children’s positive expressivity in family had significant indirect effects on PSB toward strangers via cognitive empathy for both males (β = 0.25, p < 0.05) and females (β = 0.17, p < 0.05), but only significant indirect effects on PSB toward acquaintances via cognitive empathy for females (β = 0.14, p < 0.05). Children’s negative expressivity in family had significant indirect effects on PSB toward strangers via cognitive empathy for only males (β = 0.12, p < 0.05), and no significant indirect effects on PSB toward acquaintances via cognitive empathy for both gender groups. Affective empathy did not significantly mediate relations between self-expressivity and PSB. Overall, children who showed more positive expressivity and less negative expressivity in family tended to show more PSB.

Conclusions

Our findings indicated the promotion of positive expressivity in the home would be associated with increased cognitive empathy, and in turn, with more PSB in children.

vorige artikel Associations between Mothers’ Work-Family Conflict and Children’s Psychological Well-being: The Mediating Role of Mothers’ Parenting Behavior

volgende artikel Are Security Tensions Associated with Parental Assessment of Current and Past Child Behavior?

Arbuckle, J. L. (2003). Amos 5.0 [Computer software]. Chicago: SPSS.

Bai, S., Repetti, R. L., & Sperling, J. B. (2016). Children’s expressions of positive emotion are sustained by smiling, touching, and playing with parents and siblings: a naturalistic observational study of family life. Developmental Psychology, 52, 88–101. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0039854.supp(Supplemental).CrossRefPubMed

Batson, C. D (1991). The altruism question: toward a social-psychological answer. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Bentler, P. M. (1990). Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychological Bulletin, 107(2), 238–246.CrossRef

Bentler, P. M., & Bonett, D. G. (1980). Significance tests and goodness-of-fit in the analysis of covariance structures. Psychological Bulletin, 88, 588–600. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.107.2.238.CrossRef

Berlin, L. J., & Cassidy, J. (2003). Mothers’ self-reported control of their preschool children’s emotional expressiveness: a longitudinal study of associations with infant-mother attachment and children’s emotion regulation. Social Development, 12, 477–495. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9507.00244.CrossRef

Belacchi, C., & Farina, E. (2012). Feeling and thinking of others: affective and cognitive empathy and emotion comprehension in prosocial/hostile preschoolers. Aggressive Behavior, 38, 150–165.CrossRef

Boyum, L. A., & Parke, R. D. (1995). The role of family emotional expressiveness in the development of children’s social competence. Journal of Marriage and The Family, 57, 593–608. https://doi.org/10.2307/353915.CrossRef

Brody, L. R. (1997). Gender and emotion: beyond stereotypes. Journal of Social Issues, 53, 369–393. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00022.CrossRef

Bruner, J. (1996). The culture of education. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Caprara, G. V., Luengo Kanacri, B. P., Zuffianò, A., Gerbino, M., & Pastorelli, C. (2015). Why and how to promote adolescents’ prosocial behaviors: direct, mediated and moderated effects of the CEPIDEA school-based program. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44, 2211–2229. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0293-1.CrossRefPubMed

Carlo, G., Allen, J. B., & Buhman, D. C. (1999). Facilitating and disinhibiting prosocial behaviors: the nonlinear interaction of trait perspective taking and trait personal distress on volunteering. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 21(3), 189–197. https://doi.org/10.1207/15324839951036362.CrossRef

Carlo, G., Hausmann, A., Christiansen, S., & Randall, B. A. (2003). Sociocognitive and behavioral correlates of a measure of prosocial tendencies for adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 23, 107–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/0272431602239132.CrossRef

Carlo, G., McGinley, M., Roesch, S. C., & Kaminski, J. W. (2008). Measurement invariance in a measure of prosocial moral reasoning to use with adolescents from the USA and Brazil. Journal of Moral Education, 37, 485–502. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057240802399368.CrossRef

Denham, S. A. (1998). Emotional development in young children. New York. NY: Guilford.

Dunn, J., & Brown, J. (1994). Affect expression in the family, children’s understanding of emotions, and their interactions with others. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 40(1), 120–137.

Edwards, N. M. (2014). Distinct factors associated with head start mothers’ self-report of perceived low positive and high negative maternal expressiveness. Early Education and Development, 25, 1219–1247. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2014.925844.CrossRef

Eisenberg, N., Cumberland, A., & Spinrad, T. L. (1998). Parental socialization of emotion. Psychological Inquiry, 9, 241–273.CrossRef

Eisenberg, N., Spinrad, T. L., & Sadovsky, A. (2006). Empathy-related responding in children. In M. Killen & J. G. Smetana (Eds), Handbook of moral development (pp. 517–549). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Gallo, L. C., & Matthews, K. A. (2003). Understanding the association between socioeconomic status and physical health: do negative emotions play a role? Psychological Bulletin, 129, 10–51. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.1.10.CrossRefPubMed

Gamble, W. C., & Yu, J. J. (2014). Young children’s sibling relationship interactional types: associations with family characteristics, parenting, and child characteristics. Early Education and Development, 25, 223–239. https://doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2013.788434.CrossRef

Halberstadt, A. G., Cassidy, J., Stifter, C. A., Parke, R. D., & Fox, N. A. (1995). Self-expressiveness within the family context: psychometric support for a new measure. Psychological Assessment, 7, 93–103. https://doi.org/10.1037/1040-3590.7.1.93.CrossRef

Halberstadt, A. G., & Eaton, K. L. (2003). A meta-analysis of family expressiveness and children’s emotion expressiveness and understanding. Marriage & Family Review, 34, 35–62. https://doi.org/10.1300/J002v34n01_03.CrossRef

Hoffman, M. L. (1984). Interaction of affect and cognition in empathy. In C. E. Izard, J. Kagan & R. B. Zajonc (Eds), Emotions, Cognition, and Behavior (pp. 103–131). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Hoffman, M. L. (2000). Empathy and moral development: implications for caring and justice. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef

Hu, Y., Wang, Y., & Liu, A. (2017). The influence of mothers’ emotional expressivity and class grouping on Chinese preschoolers’ emotional regulation strategies. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26, 824–832. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-016-0606-3.CrossRef

Jolliffe, D., & Farrington, D. P. (2006). Development and validation of the basic empathy scale. Journal of Adolescence, 29, 589–611. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2005.08.010.CrossRefPubMed

Kim, H., & Markus, H. R. (1999). Deviance or uniqueness, harmony or conformity? A cultural analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 785–800.CrossRef

Kumru, A. (2003). Prosocial behavior within the family context and its correlates among Turkish early adolescents. Dissertation Abstracts International, 63, 6121.

Louie, J. Y., Oh, B. J., & Lau, A. S. (2013). Cultural differences in the links between parental control and children’s emotional expressivity. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 19, 424–434. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0032820.CrossRefPubMed

Louie, J. Y., Wang, S., Fung, J., & Lau, A. (2015). Children’s emotional expressivity and teacher perceptions of social competence: a cross-cultural comparison. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 39, 497–507. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025414548775.CrossRef

Liang, Z., Zhang, G., Chen, H., & Zhang, P. (2012). Relations among parental meta-emotion philosophy, parental emotion expressivity, and children’s social competence. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 44, 199–210. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1041.2012.00199.CrossRef

Luebbe, A. M., & Bell, D. J. (2014). Positive and negative family emotional climate differentially predict youth anxiety and depression via distinct affective pathways. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 42, 897–911. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-013-9838-5.CrossRefPubMed

Mestre, M. V., Carlo, G., Samper, P., Malonda, E., & Mestre, A. L. (2019). Bidirectional relations among empathy‐related traits, prosocial moral reasoning, and prosocial behaviors. Social Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/sode.12366.CrossRef

Mesurado, B., & Richaud, M. C. (2017). The relationship between parental variables, empathy and prosocial-flow with prosocial behavior toward strangers, friends, and family. Journal of Happiness Studies: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Subjective Well-Being, 18, 843–860. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-016-9748-7.CrossRef

Morelen, D., Jacob, M. L., Suveg, C., Jones, A., & Thomassin, K. (2013). Family emotion expressivity, emotion regulation, and the link to psychopathology: examination across race. British Journal of Psychology, 104, 149–166. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8295.2012.02108.x.CrossRefPubMed

Murakami, T., Nishimura, T., & Sakurai, S. (2014). Relation between cognitive/emotional empathy and prosocial and aggressive behaviors in elementary and middle school students. Japanese Journal of Developmental Psychology, 25(4), 399–411.

Noguchi, R. P., & Ollendick, T. H. (2010). Is family expressiveness as reported by mothers and fathers related to children’s social anxiety symptoms? Journal of Child and Family Studies, 19, 278–286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-009-9295-5.CrossRef

Panjwani, N., Chaplin, T. M., Sinha, R., & Mayes, L. C. (2016). Gender differences in emotion expression in low-income adolescents under stress. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 40, 117–132. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10919-015-0224-6.CrossRefPubMed

Park, S. & Park, S. (2012). Relationship between emotion, individualism-collectivism cultural disposition and prosocial behavior among adolescents. Korean Journal of Psychology: Developmental, 25(2),85–106.

Popliger, M., Talwar, V., & Crossman, A. (2011). Predictors of children’s prosocial lie-telling: motivation, socialization variables, and moral understanding. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110, 373–392. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2011.05.003.CrossRefPubMed

Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879–891.CrossRef

Roberts, W., & Strayer, J. (1996). Empathy, emotional expressiveness, and prosocial behavior. Child Development, 67, 449–470. https://doi.org/10.2307/1131826.CrossRef

Rydell, A. M., Berlin, L., & Bohlin, G. (2003). Emotionality, emotion regulation, and adaptation among 5- to 8-year-old children. Emotion, 3, 30–47. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.3.1.30.CrossRefPubMed

Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2002). Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: new procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7(4), 422–445.CrossRef

Steiger, J. H., & Lind, J. M. (1980). Statistically based tests for the number of common factors. Paper presented at the annual Meeting of the Psychometric Society. Iowa City, IA.

Strayer, J., & Roberts, W. (1997). Children’s personal distance and their empathy: indices of interpersonal closeness. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 20, 385–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/016502597385199.CrossRef

Suveg, C., Sood, E., Barmish, A., Tiwari, S., Hudson, J. L., & Kendall, P. C. (2008). “I’d rather not talk about it”: emotion parenting in families of children with an anxiety disorder. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 875–884. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012861.CrossRefPubMedPubMedCentral

Van der Graaff, J., Branje, S., De Wied, M., Hawk, S., Van Lier, P., & Meeus, W. (2014). Perspective taking and empathic concern in adolescence: gender differences in developmental changes. Developmental Psychology, 50, 881–888. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034325.CrossRefPubMed

Van der Graaff, J., Carlo, G., Crocetti, E., Koot, H. M., & Branje, S. (2018). Prosocial behavior in adolescence: gender differences in development and links with empathy. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47, 1086–1099. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0786-1.CrossRefPubMed

You, S., Kim, E., & No, U. (2015). Impact of violent video games on the social behaviors of adolescents: the mediating role of emotional competence. School Psychology International, 36, 94–111. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143034314562921.CrossRef

Titel: The Mediating Effect of Empathy on the Relation Between Child Self-Expressiveness in Family and Prosocial Behaviors
Auteurs: Eui Kyung Kim
Sukkyung You
Jerica Knox
Publicatiedatum: 11-12-2019
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Child and Family Studies / Uitgave 6/2020
Print ISSN: 1062-1024
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-2843
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01676-2

Bohn Stafleu van Loghum

Deel dit onderdeel of sectie (kopieer de link)

Abstract

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Log in om toegang te krijgen

Andere artikelen Uitgave 6/2020

Mexican American Urban Youth Perspectives on Neighborhood Stressors, Psychosocial Difficulties, and Coping: En Sus Propias Palabras

Are Security Tensions Associated with Parental Assessment of Current and Past Child Behavior?

Parents’ Impact on Children’s School Performance: Marital Satisfaction, Parental Involvement, and Mental Health

The Relationship between Family Climate and Identity Development Processes: The Moderating Role of Developmental Stages and Outcomes

Parenting and Child Anxiety: The Role of Country of Birth and Acculturation in Indian-born Migrants to Australia Relative to Native-born Australians

The Role of Logical Consequences and Autonomy Support in Children’s Anticipated Reactions of Anger and Empathy