The behavioural expression of empathy to others' pain versus others' sadness in young children

Nancy F. Bandstra; Christine T. Chambers; Patrick J. McGrath; Chris Moore

doi:10.1016/j.pain.2011.01.024

The behavioural expression of empathy to others' pain versus others' sadness in young children

Nancy F. Bandstra, Christine T. Chambers, Patrick J. McGrath, Chris Moore

Medicine

Medicine

Producción científica: Contribución a una revista › Artículo › revisión exhaustiva

55 Citas (Scopus)

Resumen

Little is known about how children develop or express their empathy for another individual's pain. The current study compared the behavioural expression of empathy for pain with that for emotion, specifically sadness, in children. One hundred twenty children (60 boys, 60 girls) between the ages of 18 and 36 months (M = 26.44 months; SD = 5.17) were assessed for their empathy-related behavioural responses to simulations of an adult's pain and sadness, each presented separately. Children were more likely to be distressed by, but also more likely to be prosocially responsive to, another's sadness. Conversely, children were more likely to actively play during another's pain. Despite these differences, principal component analyses conducted separately for pain and sadness revealed conceptual similarities across simulation type. Components labelled as Empathic Concern and Personal Distress emerged for both simulations. Hierarchical regression analyses examining the influence of developmental (ie, age, sex) and interindividual (ie, temperament, social-emotional development, language abilities) variables of interest in children's empathy-related responses were conducted for each pain and sadness component. Age differences emerged only for pain. There were no sex differences for either simulation. Temperament showed some predictive value in how children would respond to sadness. Social-emotional variables showed some predictive value in how children would respond to pain and sadness. Language showed very little predictive value. These findings highlight both conceptual similarities across, and important differences between, children's expressions of empathy for pain and for sadness. Pain appears to be more easily ignored and results in fewer prosocial responses in children. Young children's reactions to simulations of adult pain and sadness were coded for empathy-related responses. Results indicated that children were less responsive to others' pain.

Idioma original	English
Páginas (desde-hasta)	1074-1082
Número de páginas	9
Publicación	Pain
Volumen	152
N.º	5
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2011.01.024
Estado	Published - may. 2011

Nota bibliográfica

Funding Information:
The present work is based on the first author’s dissertation. Funding for this research was provided by an IWK Health Centre Category A Research Grant awarded to N.F. Bandstra, an operating grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) awarded to C.T. Chambers, and infrastructure funding from the Canada Foundation for Innovation. N.F. Bandstra is supported by a Dalhousie University Graduate Fellowship. She is a trainee member of Pain in Child Health, a Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research of the CIHR. C.T. Chambers and P.J. McGrath are supported by Canada Research Chairs. We would like to thank the many children and parents who participated in this research. We would also like to thank Adele Gouthro and Amanda MacDonald for their research assistance, as well as Dr. Tracy Spinrad and Dr. Paul Hastings for their valuable comments during the completion of this dissertation.

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

Neurology
Clinical Neurology
Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine

PubMed: MeSH publication types

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

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10.1016/j.pain.2011.01.024

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title = "The behavioural expression of empathy to others' pain versus others' sadness in young children",

abstract = "Little is known about how children develop or express their empathy for another individual's pain. The current study compared the behavioural expression of empathy for pain with that for emotion, specifically sadness, in children. One hundred twenty children (60 boys, 60 girls) between the ages of 18 and 36 months (M = 26.44 months; SD = 5.17) were assessed for their empathy-related behavioural responses to simulations of an adult's pain and sadness, each presented separately. Children were more likely to be distressed by, but also more likely to be prosocially responsive to, another's sadness. Conversely, children were more likely to actively play during another's pain. Despite these differences, principal component analyses conducted separately for pain and sadness revealed conceptual similarities across simulation type. Components labelled as Empathic Concern and Personal Distress emerged for both simulations. Hierarchical regression analyses examining the influence of developmental (ie, age, sex) and interindividual (ie, temperament, social-emotional development, language abilities) variables of interest in children's empathy-related responses were conducted for each pain and sadness component. Age differences emerged only for pain. There were no sex differences for either simulation. Temperament showed some predictive value in how children would respond to sadness. Social-emotional variables showed some predictive value in how children would respond to pain and sadness. Language showed very little predictive value. These findings highlight both conceptual similarities across, and important differences between, children's expressions of empathy for pain and for sadness. Pain appears to be more easily ignored and results in fewer prosocial responses in children. Young children's reactions to simulations of adult pain and sadness were coded for empathy-related responses. Results indicated that children were less responsive to others' pain.",

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N2 - Little is known about how children develop or express their empathy for another individual's pain. The current study compared the behavioural expression of empathy for pain with that for emotion, specifically sadness, in children. One hundred twenty children (60 boys, 60 girls) between the ages of 18 and 36 months (M = 26.44 months; SD = 5.17) were assessed for their empathy-related behavioural responses to simulations of an adult's pain and sadness, each presented separately. Children were more likely to be distressed by, but also more likely to be prosocially responsive to, another's sadness. Conversely, children were more likely to actively play during another's pain. Despite these differences, principal component analyses conducted separately for pain and sadness revealed conceptual similarities across simulation type. Components labelled as Empathic Concern and Personal Distress emerged for both simulations. Hierarchical regression analyses examining the influence of developmental (ie, age, sex) and interindividual (ie, temperament, social-emotional development, language abilities) variables of interest in children's empathy-related responses were conducted for each pain and sadness component. Age differences emerged only for pain. There were no sex differences for either simulation. Temperament showed some predictive value in how children would respond to sadness. Social-emotional variables showed some predictive value in how children would respond to pain and sadness. Language showed very little predictive value. These findings highlight both conceptual similarities across, and important differences between, children's expressions of empathy for pain and for sadness. Pain appears to be more easily ignored and results in fewer prosocial responses in children. Young children's reactions to simulations of adult pain and sadness were coded for empathy-related responses. Results indicated that children were less responsive to others' pain.

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The behavioural expression of empathy to others' pain versus others' sadness in young children

Resumen

Nota bibliográfica

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

PubMed: MeSH publication types

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