Children's Sympathy Research Articles

Parents' color-blind racial ideology and implicit racial attitudes predict children's race-based sympathy.

We examined the relation of White parents' color-blind racial attitudes (a global composite score and its subscales) and their implicit racial attitudes to their young children's race-based sympathy toward Black and White victims. One hundred and nighty non-Hispanic White children (54% boys, Mage = 7.13 years, SD = 0.92) reported their sympathy in response to short films depicting bullying toward White or Black children. Their primary caregivers' (mostly mothers') color-blind racial ideology (CBRI) was assessed through a questionnaire (reflecting global color blindness, as well as denial of institutional racism, White privilege, and blatant racial issues), and their implicit racial attitudes were assessed with a computerized test. Children's sympathy toward Black victims and their equitable sympathy (difference score toward Black vs. White victims) was predicted by parents' color blindness, implicit racial attitudes, and their interaction. Results indicated several interaction effects, such that parents' denial of blatant racial attitudes and global CBRI were negatively related to children's sympathy toward Black victims and equitable sympathy toward Black versus White victims, only when the parents held implicit racial attitudes that favored White people. In addition, parents' denial of White privilege was negatively related to children's sympathy toward Black victims. The findings are discussed in terms of potential ways to shape children's race-based sympathy and compassion, particularly with an eye toward ways White parents might socialize sympathy toward historically marginalized youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Parenting and White children's prosocial behaviors toward same‐race and other‐race peers: The moderating role of targeted moral emotions

AbstractObjectiveWe examined the associations among parenting, children's moral emotions, and children's prosocial behaviors toward Black peers and White peers.BackgroundParenting practices inform children's prosocial behaviors; however, the contextual and individual factors that predict children's differentiated prosocial behaviors have been understudied.MethodParticipants were 190 White children (5.4 to 8.91 years old, 45.8% female) and their primary parents. Parents reported parenting practices. Children's prosocial behaviors were assessed through distribution tasks; children's sympathy and empathic anger were observed in response to films that depicted injustice toward others.ResultsNurturant parenting positively predicted, whereas restrictive parenting negatively predicted, children's prosocial behaviors toward diverse others. Additionally, parenting predicted children's prosocial behaviors toward Black peers only when children expressed low levels of empathic anger toward victimized Black peers.ConclusionsOverall, nurturant parenting is positively related, and restrictive parenting is negatively related, to children's prosocial behaviors toward different targets. Children's target‐specific empathic anger moderated the relation of specific parenting practices to children's prosocial behaviors toward racial outgroup peers.ImplicationsWhite parents should understand the way that restrictive parenting might impede children's generosity toward diverse others and engage in nurturant parenting, especially when children do not naturally feel concerned about distressed outgroup members.

Children's sympathy moderates the link between their attentional orientation and ethical guilt.

This study examined how children's attentional orientation towards environmental cues, dispositional sympathy and inhibitory control were associated with their ethical guilt. Participants were 4- and 6-year-old children (N= 211; 55% male) from ethnically diverse backgrounds. To assess ethical guilt, children were presented with two vignettes depicting ethical violations and reported how they would feel and why, if they had committed those transgressions. Using eye tracking, we calculated attentional orientation as the percentage of time children attended to other-oriented (i.e., victim) minus self-serving (i.e., object gained by transgressing) cues during these vignettes. Children also reported on their sympathy and completed an observational measure of inhibitory control. Although main effects were not significant, sympathy moderated the link between attentional orientation and ethical guilt: attentional orientation was positively associated with ethical guilt for children with low levels of sympathy but had no effect among those high in sympathy. These findings suggest that practices centred on prompting children to attend to other-oriented cues - and away from self-serving ones - may be effective particularly for children who are generally less sympathetic.

The Role of Social Value Orientation in Chinese Adolescents' Moral Emotion Attribution.

Previous studies have explored the role of cognitive factors and sympathy in children's development of moral emotion attribution, but the effect of personal dispositional factors on adolescents' moral emotion expectancy has been neglected. In this study, we address this issue by testing adolescents' moral emotion attribution with different social value orientation (SVO). Eight hundred and eighty Chinese adolescents were classified into proselfs, prosocials and mixed types in SVO and asked to indicate their moral emotions in four moral contexts (prosocial, antisocial, failing to act prosocially (FAP) and resisting antisocial impulse (RAI)). The findings revealed an obvious contextual effect in adolescents' moral emotion attribution and the effect depends on SVO. Prosocials evaluated more positively than proselfs and mixed types in the prosocial and RAI contexts, but proselfs evaluated more positively than prosocials and mixed types in the antisocial and FAP contexts. The findings indicate that individual differences of adolescents' moral emotion attribution have roots in their social value orientation, and suggest the role of dispositional factors in the processing of moral emotion.

Correlates of children's sympathy: Recognition and regulation of sadness and anger

AbstractEmotion recognition and emotion regulation have been implicated as promising correlates of sympathy. However, their relative and joint contributions to sympathy in different periods of childhood remain unclear. Moreover, researchers have not explored the relative importance of recognizing and regulating distinct distress‐related emotions, such as sadness and anger, for sympathy. The objective of the current paper was to gain a deeper understanding of which underlying emotion‐related factors are most implicated in sympathy and when in childhood they are most predictive. With an ethnically diverse sample of 4‐ and 8‐yearolds (N = 300, n = 150 in each age group; 50% female), this study tested sadness and anger recognition and regulation, and interactions thereof, as predictors of sympathy. Better sadness and anger regulation independently predicted higher levels of sympathy in 4‐ and 8‐year‐olds, albeit sadness regulation was a more robust predictor of sympathy in 4‐year‐olds. Better sadness recognition was associated with higher sympathy in 8‐year‐olds who also had better sadness regulation. Results underscore the importance of emotion regulation for sympathy, particularly in early childhood. The findings also tentatively suggest that the correlates of sympathy may become more nuanced in middle childhood, with emotion‐specific recognition and regulation capacities employed in concert.

Assessing social-emotional development: Reliability and validity of the social-emotional responding task.

The Social-Emotional Responding Task (SERT) assesses children's anticipated emotions in the contexts of transgressions (Malti, The Social-Emotional Responding Task. Unpublished tool by T. Malti, 2017.). We present a systematic psychometric evaluation of the SERT using data from two different samples of 4-8-year-old children from Canada (N = 291, Mage = 6.55 years, SDs = 2.02, 50% boys in Sample 1 and N = 282, Mage = 6.57 years, SDs = 1.56, 49% boys in Sample 2). Children reported their anticipated emotions in six vignettes describing three domains of transgressions [aggressive acts (AA), prosocial omission (PO), and social exclusion (SE)]. Caregivers rated children's sympathy and prosocial and aggressive behaviors. Results supported a one-factor ("domain-general") model over a three-factor ("domain-specific") model, indicating convergence of anticipated emotions across vignettes and domains. Measurement invariance was established across gender and age groups, indicating the robustness of the assessment. Construct validity was supported by associations with sympathy and less robustly, with prosocial and aggressive behavior. We discuss the use of SERT as an assessment tool for children's social-emotional capacities in research and practice settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

ENLIGHTENER AND EDUCATOR I. I. GORBUNOV-POSADOV ABOUT DEVELOPMENT OF VALUABLE ATTITUDE TO LIVING BEINGS WORLD AMONG CHILDREN

This article raises the actual problem of relationship between human and nature, human beings and all other creatures. We see the solution of the problem in initiating of broad educational and pedagogical influences on philosophical values of the individual, starting from early childhood; emphasis is placed on the current unsatisfactory situation in this area. It is noted that the origins of solving the problem of educating children in a humane attitude to all life can be found in the educational, pedagogical and practical activities of organizations and individual figures who lived and worked in the late 19 — early 20 century. Among other prominent historical figures of the time, the figure of Ivan Ivanovych Horbunov-Posadov (1864–1940) was chosen as the most notable, with a significant but largely unstudied journalistic, artistic, educational and pedagogical heritage. This article is devoted to analysis of his humanistic ideas. The Russian educator’s diverse personal heritage is completely described — essays, stories, poems, that reveal the author’s kind, protective, caring attitude to nature, especially to animals, as well as his work as magazine editor and compiler of reading books showing children diverse and at the same time vulnerable world of all living beings. The article presents a circle of friends, like-minded persons and employees of I. I. Gorbunov-Posadov (L. Tolstoy, V. Chertkov, I. Perper, O. Horbunova- Posadova, V. Lukianska), who carried out this humane mission. Educator’s position and activity as a popularizer of vegetarianism, an activist of the vegetarian movement, one of the organizers of the 1st All-Russian Vegetarian Congress and the inspirer of the Moscow Vegetarian Society are highlighted. Particular attention is paid to pedagogical aspects of teacher’s creative heritage. The article in particular highlights and describes his specific advice on ways to form in children of different ages through school and family love, care and concern for all animals, even those that do not cause sympathy in children. Attention is paid to activity-based aspects of the educational process consisting in making bird feeders, constructing animal houses, and so on. The general conclusion to the above was a thought that the ideas and pedagogical approaches of I. I. Gorbunov-Posadov have not lost their significance, and in environmental crises become urgently relevant and can be used in modern multifaceted pedagogical interaction between adults, children and animals.

Aware and tuned to care: Children with better distress recognition and higher sympathy anticipate more guilt after harming others.

Helping children recognize the distress of their victims and feel sympathy may facilitate the optimal socialization of ethical guilt. With a sample of 150 eight-year-olds, we tested the main and interactive relations of distress recognition and sympathy to ethical guilt after hypothetically stealing and pushing. Better fear recognition and higher sympathy were uniquely associated with higher ethical guilt. The link between fear recognition and ethical guilt was stronger in children with higher sympathy. Beyond their unique contributions, distress recognition and sympathy may work in concert to facilitate ethical guilt after harming others. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject Children are thought to express more guilt if they recognize their victims' distress and feel sympathy for them. However, there is little evidence for the direct roles of distress recognition and sympathy in children's guilt, and none for their joint contribution. What the present study adds The link between fear recognition and guilt was stronger in children with higher sympathy. Sympathy may help children harness and translate the awareness afforded by distress recognition into feelings of accountability and regret. This study was the first to clarify the main and additive roles of sympathy and distress recognition in children's anticipation of guilt after harming others. Promoting distress recognition and sympathy may represent a viable two-step approach to inducing guilt in children after they violate others' welfare.

Children's sympathy and sensitivity to excluding economically disadvantaged peers.

Economically disadvantaged children often lack the resources to purchase popular goods and participate in their preferred social groups' activities, making it difficult to fit in. Meanwhile, children from middle socioeconomic status (SES) families may have additional influence over whether low SES children are included in such groups. We examined how a middle SES sample of 333 4- and 8-year-olds felt and reasoned about excluding a child who is economically disadvantaged (i.e., a needy child) versus a child who attends another school (i.e., a less needy child). We also examined whether children's dispositional sympathy was associated with their negatively valenced moral emotions (NVMEs) after hypothetically excluding. Older children reported feeling more NVMEs for both targets of exclusion. Furthermore, unlike 4-year-olds, 8-year-olds differentiated between the targets of exclusion by reporting more NVMEs after excluding a child who is economically disadvantaged. Lastly, children's sympathy was positively associated with their NVMEs after excluding a child who is economically disadvantaged but not a child who attends another school. We conclude that with increasing sympathy and age, children likely become more sensitive to the needs of their disadvantaged peers-an effect with meaningful implications for improving peer relationships across socioeconomic spheres. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The development of interindividual differences in sympathy: The role of child personality and adults’ responsiveness to distress

AbstractIn a three‐wave longitudinal study of 85 children (43 girls) at 5, 6, and 7 years of age, the role played by child personality (inhibition, aggressiveness) and adults’ responsiveness to distress in children's sympathy was examined. At all three times, sympathy was measured via standardized observations as well as children's self‐reports. Child inhibition and aggressiveness were assessed with reports by teachers at T1 and T2. Parents’ and teachers’ responsiveness to distress were inferred from interviews with the children at T1 and T2. Longitudinal analyses via latent regression using structural equation models showed that earlier sympathy explained most of the variance in later sympathy. Additionally, higher inhibition at T1 predicted less sympathy at T2. Higher sympathy at T1 predicted more adult responsiveness at T2. Higher aggressiveness at T2 predicted less sympathy at T3. Within time, at T1, sympathy was positively related to adults’ responsiveness. At T2, inhibition and sympathy were negatively related. The discussion focuses on the question of how child personality as well as parental and non‐parental socialization experiences work in concert to explain interindividual differences in sympathy.

Inclusive classroom norms, children's sympathy, and intended inclusion toward students with hyperactive behavior

As the classroom represents an important social context for the development of out-group attitudes, the current study investigated the role of inclusive classroom norms for students' attitudes toward hyperactive peers. The study included 1209 Swiss children from 61 school classes who were surveyed in the fifth grade (T1) and in the sixth grade (T2) (MageT1 = 11.55 years, MageT2 = 12.58 years). Students' attitudes toward hyperactive children was assessed by self-reports on students' sympathy and intended inclusion toward hypothetical children who show hyperactive behavior. Moreover, students rated their classmates' inclusive attitudes. Analyses with an autoregressive multilevel path model revealed that inclusive classrooms norms in the fifth grade predicted students' sympathy and intended inclusion toward hyperactive children in the sixth grade. The results implicate that group-level analyses are important in order to explain hyperactive children's peer group problems.

The codevelopment of sympathy and overt aggression from middle childhood to early adolescence.

We assessed the extent to which feelings of sympathy and aggressive behaviors codeveloped from 6 to 12 years of age in a representative sample of Swiss children (N = 1,273). Caregivers and teachers reported children's sympathy and overt aggression in 3-year intervals. Second-order latent curve models indicated general mean-level declines in sympathy and overt aggression over time, although the decline in sympathy was relatively small. Importantly, both trajectories were characterized by significant interindividual variability. A bivariate second-order latent curve model revealed a small-moderate negative correlation between the latent slopes of sympathy and overt aggression, suggesting an inverse codevelopmental relationship between the constructs from middle childhood to early adolescence. In terms of predictive effects, an autoregressive cross-lagged model indicated a lack of bidirectional relations between sympathy and overt aggression, underscoring the primacy of the variables' rank-order stability. We discuss the codevelopment and developmental relations of sympathy and aggression, their potential conjoint social-emotional mechanisms, and the practical implications thereof. (PsycINFO Database Record

Children's Sympathy, Guilt, and Moral Reasoning in Helping, Cooperation, and Sharing: A 6-Year Longitudinal Study.

This study examined the role of sympathy, guilt, and moral reasoning in helping, cooperation, and sharing in a 6-year, three-wave longitudinal study involving 175 children (Mage 6.10, 9.18, and 12.18years). Primary caregivers reported on children's helping and cooperation; sharing was assessed behaviorally. Child sympathy was assessed by self- and teacher reports, and self-attributed feelings of guilt-sadness and moral reasoning were assessed by children's responses to transgression vignettes. Sympathy predicted helping, cooperation, and sharing. Guilt-sadness and moral reasoning interacted with sympathy in predicting helping and cooperation; both sympathy and guilt-sadness were associated with the development of sharing. The findings are discussed in relation to the emergence of differential motivational pathways to helping, cooperation, and sharing.

Sharing without caring? Respect for moral others compensates for low sympathy in children's sharing.

We examined links between sharing, respect for moral others, and sympathy in an ethnically diverse sample of 7- and 15-year-olds (N=146). Sharing was assessed through children's allocation of resources in the dictator game. Children reported their respect towards hypothetical characters performing moral acts. Sympathy was evaluated via caregiver and child reports. Respect and caregiver-reported sympathy interacted in predicting sharing: Higher levels of respect were associated with higher levels of sharing for children with low, but not medium or high, levels of sympathy. The motivational components of other-oriented respect may compensate for low levels of sympathetic concern in the promotion of sharing.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia, effortful control, and parenting as predictors of children's sympathy across early childhood.

The goal of this study was to examine physiological and environmental predictors of children's sympathy (an emotional response consisting of feelings of concern or sorrow for others who are distressed or in need) and whether temperamental effortful control mediated these relations. Specifically, in a study of 192 children (23% Hispanic; 54% male), respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), a measure thought to reflect physiological regulation, and observed authoritative parenting (both at 42 months) were examined as predictors of children's effortful control (at 54 months) and, in turn, children's sympathy (at 72 and 84 months). Measures of both baseline RSA and RSA suppression were examined. In a structural equation model, observed parenting was positively related to children's subsequent sympathy through its positive relation to effortful control. Furthermore, the indirect path from baseline RSA to higher sympathy through effortful control was marginally significant. Authoritative parenting and baseline RSA uniquely predicted individual differences in children's effortful control. Findings highlight the potential role of both authoritative parenting and physiological regulation in the development of children's sympathy.

Children's giving: moral reasoning and moral emotions in the development of donation behaviors.

This study investigated the role of moral reasoning and moral emotions (i.e., sympathy and guilt) in the development of young children’s donating behavior (N = 160 4- and 8-year-old children). Donating was measured through children’s allocation of resources (i.e., stickers) to needy peers and was framed as a donation to “World Vision.” Children’s sympathy was measured with both self- and primary caregiver-reports and participants reported their anticipation of guilt feelings following actions that violated prosocial moral norms, specifically the failure to help or share. Participants also provided justifications for their anticipated emotions, which were coded as representing moral or non-moral reasoning processes. Children’s moral reasoning emerged as a significant predictor of donating behavior. In addition, results demonstrated significant developmental and gender effects, with 8-year-olds donating significantly more than 4-year-olds and 4-year-old girls making higher value donations than boys of the same age. We discuss donation behaviors within the broader context of giving and highlight the moral developmental antecedents of giving behaviors in childhood.

How bipartisanship and incrementalism stitched the child health insurance safety net (1982-1997).

Today, 96.5 percent of children and adolescents either have health insurance or are uninsured but eligible for a public plan. This proportion far exceeds the most optimistic coverage projections for adults under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The child health insurance safety net was crafted from 1982 to 1997 through several incremental, bipartisan federal and state legislative actions. It began by offering and later mandating state Medicaid eligibility expansions and culminated with the enactment of the State Child Health Insurance Program. Two-thirds of the states leveraged these laws to expand coverage beyond federal requirements. As a senior executive with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the author was directly involved or closely monitored these federal and state child health insurance expansions. This case study is a participant-observer analysis of that period, an era that stands in stark contrast to today's highly partisan times. The successive expansions of publicly funded children's health insurance during this conservative period, when many other human services programs were slashed, are attributed to public sympathy for children, political acceptability by the right and the left, manageable costs, and the relative ease of state implementation as these changes came in incremental pieces over several years.

The role of moral emotions in the development of children’s sharing behavior.

This study investigated the role of moral emotions in the development of children's sharing behavior (N = 244 4-, 8-, and 12-year-old children). Children's sympathy was measured with both self- and primary caregiver-reports, and participants anticipated their negatively and positively valenced moral emotions (i.e., feeling guilty, sad, or bad; and feeling proud, happy, or good) following actions that either violated or upheld moral norms. Sharing was measured through children's allocation of resources in the dictator game. Children's self-reported sympathy emerged as a significant predictor of sharing in early childhood. For children with low levels of sympathy, sharing was also predicted by negatively valenced moral emotions following the failure to perform prosocial actions. In addition, results demonstrated an age-related increase in sharing for boys between ages 4 and 8 and a decrease in sharing for boys between ages 8 and 12. We discuss the findings in relation to the emergence of 2 compensatory emotional pathways to sharing, 1 via sympathy and 1 via negatively valenced moral emotions.

Developmental Trajectories of Sympathy, Moral Emotion Attributions, and Moral Reasoning: The Role of Parental Support

AbstractWe examined the role of parental support to children's sympathy, moral emotion attribution, and moral reasoning trajectories in a three‐wave longitudinal study of Swiss children at 6 years of age (N = 175; Time 1), 7 years of age (Time 2), and 9 years of age (Time 3). Sympathy was assessed with self‐report measures. Moral emotion attributions and moral reasoning were measured with children's responses to hypothetical moral transgressions. Parental support was assessed at all assessment points with primary caregiver and child reports. Three trajectory classes of sympathy were identified: high‐stable, average‐increasing, and low‐stable. Moral emotion attributions exhibited high‐stable, increasing, and decreasing trajectories. Moral reasoning displayed high‐stable, increasing, and low‐stable trajectories. Children who were in the high‐stable sympathy group had higher self‐reported support than children in the increasing and low‐stable trajectory groups. Children who were in the high‐stable moral emotion attribution group or the high‐stable moral reasoning group had higher primary caregiver‐reported support than children in the corresponding increasing trajectory groups. Furthermore, children who were members of the high‐stable group in all three moral development variables (i.e., sympathy, moral emotion attribution, and moral reasoning) displayed higher levels of self‐reported parental support than children who were not.

A Study Related To Mental Health of Teachers With Reference To Level of Teaching and Teaching Experience

The Present study is focussed on the mental health of teachers in relation to level of teaching and teaching experience .The mental health scale has been administered to 640 teachers working in different schools in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu, India. This study uses 'F' test and reveals that the level of teaching and teaching experience do not significantly differ in their mental health. I. Introduction Education is a comprehensive and synthetic process, which helps in the development of the body, the nourishment of the mind, the sublimation of the emotions and regeneration of the spirit and its fulfilment lies in the unfolding of an integrated personality. Teaching is often said to be the noblest profession among all the professions so the teachers should realize that the work they are doing is the noblest and that they need not be apologestic or feel guilty ,instead have pride and confidence in their worth and work. Tagore rightly said that lighted lamp can lighten another which means that only an enlightened teacher who remains ever alive and struggling in the pursuit of knowledge, could enlighten his pupil and could enthuse them for more learning. One of the important qualities in the educator is that he knows his subject thoroughly well and is to keep in touch with his subject to remain up-to-date. A good teacher is required to have an attitude of love and sympathy for children. The ideal character of teacher leaves an ever lasting impression on the minds of his pupil. It is the teacher who can create a national perspective for understanding social and economic difference in the nation. The teacher should be a model to his own image in the minds of his students. The present study seeks to throw light on the mental health of teachers. The objective of the study is to find out the mental health of teachers. The hypothesis of the research is that the mental health of teachers is high. The mental health of teachers belonging to different subsample is high. There is a significant difference in the mental health of teachers with respect to different sub-sample such as 1.Teachers working at different levels of teaching 2.Teachers belonging to different years of teaching experience. The normative survey method is used. The present study is aimed at finding out the effect of the independent variables namely Level of teaching, Teaching experience. The following tools have been used for collecting data.1.Mental health Inventory standardized by Peter Becker(1989).Mental health inventory has been administered to a stratified random sample of 640 teachers working at different levels in various educational institutions in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu, India. The study is confined only to the teachers working in Cuddalore, district of Tamil Nadu.