Empathic Development Research Articles

Artifacts of Empathy: Cultivating, Identifying, and Assessing Students’ Development and Written Articulations of Empathy in a Community Engagement Course

This research recounts a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project aimed at facilitating students’ empathic development while also offering ways to identify and assess students’ written expressions of empathy. I ground this work in an exploration of the many processes labelled as empathy and the reasons for including empathy as a course learning outcome. While participating in the Lighted School House program, I explored using progressive, or stacked, writing reflections to help students build, recognize, and articulate their own empathy. I conducted a close reading of final reflection papers in two offerings of a second-year community engagement course (in 2017 and 2019) in which students worked with an afterschool program in local elementary and middle schools. This enabled me to identify features of student writing—the evidence or “artifacts”— that illustrated their understanding of empathy, others’ perspectives, and positionality. To assess the depth and complexity with which students articulated their empathy, I devised a scale to identify these written expressions as novice, intermediate, or advanced. The analysis showed the importance of using an “imagine-other” perspective rather than merely imagining oneself in another’s situation, valuing others to inspire empathic action, and using conversation as a powerful tool for developing empathy. The project points to pedagogical practices that encourage students to employ effective conversation and listening skills in community engagement. This research suggests ways to help students better express their empathy by revising prompts and rubrics to clarify the particular empathic processes targeted and to foster strong writing skills.

Understanding empathy in Norwegian social work education

ABSTRACT Empathy is pivotal to social work practice when interacting with clients, patients and their families. It is thus also important in social work education. Still, empathy as a skill is usually addressed as one of many components of communication and relational work. This study therefore compares the empathy profiles of undergraduate social work students in Norway to those of teacher education students and experienced social workers. The focus is on how empathy is understood and monitored in educational settings, particularly through the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Data were gathered anonymously through an online survey (N = 417) and analyzed to determine significance and whether meaningful interpretations could be made. The findings suggest differences in empathy levels among social work students, their supervisors and teacher education students, with theoretical insights discussed to enhance empathy teaching. This paper argues for the importance of empathy in social work practice and education, highlighting the need for a deeper understanding of empathic development in social work students.

Learning to care: An in-school humane education program improves affective and cognitive empathy among lower-elementary students

Empathy is associated with prosociality and beneficial outcomes across the lifespan. We investigated the ability a school-based program with animal-based content to affect elementary students' empathic development through a randomized control trial conducted over one academic year with ∼600 first-grade students in six schools in four cities across eastern China. Both the affective and cognitive empathy of program-participating students fared better than non-participating students. The size of these effects were “medium” (cognitive empathy) and “large” (affective empathy). A school-based program can thus improve both types of human-directed empathy among lower elementary students through animal (and nature) content. Found among a large group of Chinese students, these results supporting the ability of such programs to promote healthy development among a traditionally-understudied population.

Facilitating Multicultural and Social Justice Development through Immersion and Study Abroad Experiences

Mental health training programs are required to train students to become competent clinical professionals wherein they learn multicultural competencies, including social justice perspectives, and develop multicultural orientation. A growing trend in multicultural competence development and multicultural orientation understanding, embraced both by training programs and professional mental health organizations, is cultural immersion and study abroad experiences. These provide opportunities for personal growth, firsthand cultural learning, and exposure to global mental health matters from diverse perspectives. In addition, studying abroad allows for increased knowledge, emotional and empathic development, and spiritual formation which can lead to personal transformative development. Spirituality is a common element within study abroad, multicultural competency, and multicultural orientation, all of which are unique in all persons as a natural aspect of personal development. Through studying abroad, students can cultivate multicultural, spiritual, and values understanding, as well as encounter serendipitous learning opportunities that lead to transformative development and social justice advocacy opportunities.

Conception and Development of the Warmth/Affection Coding System (WACS): A Novel Hybrid Behavioral Observational Tool for Assessing Parent-to-Child Warmth.

A vast body of research and theory underscores the importance of parental warmth/affection (hereby 'warmth' and 'warmth/affection' are used interchangeably) as a distinct relational process that is fundamental to core developmental processes including parent-child attachment, socialization, emotion recognition and responsivity, and empathic development. The increasing focus on parental warmth as a viable transdiagnostic and specific treatment target for Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits highlights the critical need for a reliable and valid tool for measuring this construct within clinical contexts. However, existing assessment methods have limitations in their ecological validity, clinical utility, and the comprehensiveness of their coverage of core warmth subcomponents. In response to this clinical and research need, the observational Warmth/Affection Coding System (WACS) was developed to comprehensively measure parent-to-child warmth/affection. This paper chronicles the conception and development of the WACS, which adopts a hybrid approach of utilizing both microsocial and macro-observational coding methods to capture key verbal and non-verbal subcomponents of warmth that are currently underrepresented or poorly captured by existing assessment tools. Recommendations for implementation and future directions are also discussed.

The impact of maternal adverse childhood experiences and prenatal depressive symptoms on foetal attachment: Preliminary evidence from expectant mothers across eight middle-income countries

BackgroundMothers from middle-income countries (MIC) are estimated to have higher rates of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and depression during pregnancy compared to mothers from high income countries. Prenatal depression can adversely impact on a mother's feelings towards her foetus and thus may be partially responsible for intergenerational transmission of risk associated with maternal ACEs. However, the extent to which prenatal depressive symptoms mediate the association between maternal ACEs and foetal attachment is unknown. MethodsData on foetal attachment, ACEs, and prenatal depression came from mothers in their third trimester of pregnancy (n = 1,185) located across eight MICs, participating in the prospective birth cohort Evidence for Better Lives Study – Foundational Research (EBLS-FR). Data were from the baseline measurement. ResultsFull-sample path mediation analyses, adjusting for relevant covariates, suggested a full mediating effect of prenatal depression. However, at the individual-country level, both positive and negative effects of ACEs on foetal attachment were observed after the inclusion of depressive symptoms as a mediator, suggesting cultural and geographical factors may influence a mother's empathic development after ACE exposure. LimitationsAs no follow-up measurements of depressive symptoms or postnatal attachment were included in the analyses, the findings cannot be extrapolated to the postnatal period and beyond. Further, causality cannot be inferred as the study was observational. ConclusionsThe findings reinforce the importance of screening for prenatal depression during antenatal care in MICs. Addressing prenatal depression within maternal health care may support foetal attachment and contribute to reducing the intergenerational transmission of disadvantage.

Exposure to serial audiovisual narratives increases empathy via vicarious interactions

ABSTRACT This study examines how exposure to serial audiovisual narratives is associated with media users’ empathy. While mounting evidence suggests enhanced empathy following exposure to written, fictional narratives, the present study expands this line of research to the context of fictional serial audiovisual narratives. Considering that social interactions are instrumental for empathic development, vicarious interactions are proposed as a key mechanism in the relationship between exposure to fictional audiovisual narratives and empathy. Furthermore, the empathy-enhancing role of exposure to eudaimonic entertainment in particular is assessed. Additionally, possible boundary conditions are explored with respect to personality traits linked to reduced empathy. The conducted analyses combine logged data from participants’ Netflix viewing histories with self-report data from an online survey (N = 262). Results suggest that exposure to fictional serial audiovisual narratives predicts empathy via vicarious interactions. Moreover, eudaimonic experiences positively predict vicarious interactions and empathy. The role of specific media content, instead of mere exposure time, is therefore discussed with respect to the facilitation of media enhanced empathy.

Strengthening empathy in children with autism: A single-case study of a music and movement programme

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty recognizing subtle expressions of feelings, identifying and understanding various other states of emotion expressed by others, and knowing what to do in a set of conditions that exist at a particular time in a particular place. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects that a music-movement programme can have on a 6-year-old girl with ASD – specifically her ability to recognize and understand the feelings of others, communicate clearly about her personal emotional states and build stronger relationships. Results showed that the programme appeared to enhance empathic development for the young girl with ASD and reduced the frequency of difficulty in determining emotional reactions in others, describing emotional states, and difficulty thinking and feeling about a situation. These initial results support the use of the programme to reduce maladaptive behaviours of children with ASD and increase their awareness of and sensitivity towards others.

Attachment and Externalizing/Internalizing Problems in Preschoolers: Contributions of Positive and Negative Empathic Perspective-Taking

The current study’s aim was to assess the contribution of empathic perspective-taking to the relationship between attachment security and children’s risk of mal-adjustment. A sample of 212 preschoolers aged 3–5 years old was included in this study. Children completed the Attachment Story Completion Task and a modified version of the Kids’ Empathic Development Scale. Teachers and parents rated children’s externalizing/internalizing problems by employing the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form, and the Child Behavior Checklist, respectively. Results supported the notion that the indirect path from attachment security to externalizing problems was negatively mediated by empathic perspective-taking related to negative (but not positive) emotions. Similarly, the same component of empathic perspective-taking negatively mediated the relationship between attachment security and internalizing problems. These findings indicate that empathic perspective-taking in relation to negative emotions might serve to promote preschoolers’ reduced risk of mental health problems.

Attachment and Externalizing/Internalizing Problems in Preschoolers: Contributions of Positive and Negative Empathic Perspective-Taking

The current study’s aim was to assess the contribution of empathic perspective-taking to the relationship between attachment security and children’s risk of mal-adjustment. A sample of 212 preschoolers aged 3–5 years old was included in this study. Children completed the Attachment Story Completion Task and a modified version of the Kids’ Empathic Development Scale. Teachers and parents rated children’s externalizing/internalizing problems by employing the Caregiver-Teacher Report Form, and the Child Behavior Checklist, respectively. Results supported the notion that the indirect path from attachment security to externalizing problems was negatively mediated by empathic perspective-taking related to negative (but not positive) emotions. Similarly, the same component of empathic perspective-taking negatively mediated the relationship between attachment security and internalizing problems. These findings indicate that empathic perspective-taking in relation to negative emotions might serve to promote preschoolers’ reduced risk of mental health problems.

Adolescence, Empathy, and the Gender Gap in Delinquency

I propose the gender gap in delinquency is linked to adolescents’ orientation to gender-normative behavior and empathic development. I use longitudinal data on 1,525 youth from the Denver Youth Survey to analyze relationships among gender, empathy, and delinquency. I find girls exhibit higher levels of empathy across adolescence than do boys, and these differences emerge in preadolescence. Empathy is inversely related to delinquency, and is predictive of fraud and theft, but not violent delinquency. Finally, empathy partially mediates the effect of being male on delinquency. I therefore argue the gender gap in delinquency can be explained—in part—by adherence to gender norms governing empathetic expression.

Investigating Attachment Status Effects on Preschoolers’ Empathic Perspective-Taking

Attachment theory emphasizes that parents’ responses to children’s emotional distress might shape their ability to empathize with others. Previous research showed that securely attached preschoolers are prone to exhibiting more empathy towards others’ distress compared to insecurely attached children, but less is known about the way attachment influences a particular empathy-related skill, namely perspective-taking. The current study’s aim was to evaluate attachment status effects on preschool children’s empathic perspective-taking employing a multi-component conceptualization including affective, cognitive and behavioral perspective-taking. The sample included 212 children aged between 3 and 5. The attachment story completion task was employed to assess children’s internal working models concerning the quality of the parent–child attachment relationship. Additionally, a modified version of the Kid’s Empathic Development Scale was administered to evaluate children’s self-reported affective, cognitive and behavioral empathic perspective-taking. The results consistently revealed that the insecure avoidant group, but not the insecure ambivalent group, scored significantly lower on all dimensions of empathic perspective-taking compared to the secure category. These findings suggest that in typically developing preschoolers, insecure avoidant attachment patterns might be associated with overall difficulties in perspective-taking abilities, whereas insecure ambivalent attachment patterns could be responsible for more specific perspective-taking difficulties related to eliciting prosocial behaviors (i.e., behavioral perspective-taking). These findings could have implications for designing interventions aimed at enhancing parents’ ability to support the development of their children’s empathic perspective-taking skills.

Kids’ Empathic Development Scale: Turkish Language Validity and Reliability

Empathy is one of the skills that we need in order to understand the emotions of other people. Although many empathy scales exist, few are designed for children. The Kids’ Empathic Development Scale (KEDS) can be applied onward of age 6 and provide information about empathy’s affective, cognitive and behavioural components. The aim of this study is to present the Turkish validity study of KEDS and to provide a new tool that has satisfactory psychometric properties. Nine language experts made the translation and back translation form English to Turkish and vice versa. After that, the experts asked to rate the translation validity. According to experts’ opinions, the appropriate level of the items in the scale varied between 4.60 and 5.00 (X= 4.80, SD = .44). The results indicated that the Turkish scale closely approximated with the original. The scale’s language validity, analyses were performed on 30 (21 girls, 9 boys, average age = 9.5, SD = 1.17), bilingual students. Analysis, which was performed between the English and Turkish forms, showed that only the item I7_1 was found out to be problematic. Afterward, the scale’s language validity was ensured and easily accessible sampling method was adopted, and then it was applied to 293 (144 girls, 149 boys) students who were attending in seven different schools (four public, three private). Correlation analysis, which was performed to test concurrent validity, showed that there is a positive correlation (p < .01) between the total scores of Children’s Empathy Scale and Kids’ Empathic Development Scale. The results of variance analysis, which were performed in order to test if the empathy scores vary according to age, were significant as follows: total empathy score F (4, 248) = 3.10, p < .05, affective F (4, 251) = 4.70, p < .01, cognitive F (4, 250) = 2.6, p < .05 and behavioural F (4, 248) = 4.09, p < .01. Taking into consideration the gender variable not significant results were obtained. The results of the study showed that the Turkish version of KEDS is a valid and reliable, and has acceptable psychometric properties.

Gray Reflections: Poetry as a Pathway to Nursing Student Empathy and the Creation of Meaning in a Long-Term-Care Clinical Practicum.

The unique needs of the aging adult require caregivers who can completely comprehend the experience of this population. Purposefully educating nursing students to enhance development of empathy is crucial for the provision of adequate care. Innovative pedagogical strategies that produce opportunities for nursing students to reflect on patient care experiences are an opportunity for educators to guide the creation of meaning in practice for nursing students. The use of poetry reading and writing enhances the student reflective process in clinical practicum environments and may serve as a strategy to support empathic development in nursing students.

Empathic expressions among three-year-olds in play and interaction in ECEC institutions in Norway: bodily empathic expressions purposed for peers’ well-being and confirming relationships

ABSTRACTThis article is based on video observations of three-year-old children’s empathic expressions in the context of playful interactions in early childhood education and care (ECEC) institutions in Norway. The data were analysed within a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, searching for a system of the children’s self-initiated empathic expressions in their play and interaction. The findings show that young children’s inherent empathy largely appears as an embodied intonation in the other’s emotional state, expressed through facial and bodily intersubjective expressions, followed up with empathy-related responses adapted to the context through physical communication. This study reveals that funny behaviour and play invitations are empathically motivated actions, making peers happy again and confirming relationships. This new insight contributes to a broader understanding of young children’s empathy and may contribute to developing the knowledge of how ECEC’s educational work can support children’s empathic development based on an understanding of the body’s phenomenology and integrated in children’s play.

Global Empathic Consciousness Development: Mass Communication Hope?

Jeremy Rifkin’s recent perspective on global empathic consciousness development is summarized, then related to current global media practices. It is argued that media preoccupation with violence, commodification, and “entertainment” as its supra-ideologies does not serve well the further development of empathic regard for the peoples of the Earth and for our biosphere. The central nervous system extensions (a la McLuhan) of the global Western media empire have been drawn excessively from the lower and more primitive brain regions, the “reptilian” brain and the “fight-and-flight” reactivity of the limbic system, and it is time to up-level future extensions out into the world consciousness system. The notion of “mass communication hope” is raised, and eight recommendations to concerned mass communication scholars are made in response to the question “What can we do?”: (1) we can promote dialogue on ethical / neuroethical issues; (2) we can further question underlying media assumptions; (3) we can accelerate the call for media reform; (4) we can catalogue, comment upon, and publicize existing prosocial media themes, scenes, and images; (5) we can pursue further prosocial media research; (6) we can link to positive psychology research efforts; (7) we can synthesize diverse strands of prosocial research across disciplinary lines; (8) we can stimulate and facilitate ongoing dialogue on what is needed. The hope and aim is to help meet human and planetary needs for wholeness, empathy, depth of awareness, and harmony of all being.

Flexible Concern: The Development of Multidetermined and Context‐Dependent Empathic Responding

AbstractResearch on empathic development, though extensive, has largely overlooked two vital facets of flexible empathic responding—multideterminism (which is elicited in response to various cues) and context dependence (i.e., empathic responding that can be regulated depending on contextual factors). Within a dual‐process account of empathic responding (in which both bottom‐up and top‐down processes contribute), such flexible empathic responding relies heavily on top‐down processes. Yet most developmental research has not systematically considered the role of top‐down processes in bringing about multidetermined and context‐dependent empathic responding; as such, it provides a narrow view of early empathic responding. Recent research has begun to fill these gaps and suggests that top‐down processes are involved even in early flexible empathic responding. But much more work is needed, particularly on developmental mechanisms and the development of top‐down processes, to understand fully the origins of flexible concern.

How do you think she feels? Vulnerability in empathy and the role of attention in school-aged children born extremely preterm.

The aim of this study was to examine empathic competence in children born extremely preterm (EP, <28weeks) given vulnerabilities in social relationships. Empathy in typically developing children is mediated by executive functions. Executive functioning is also impaired in preterm children. Of particular interest in this study are the attentional components of executive functioning as mediators of empathic development. Thirty-two 7-year-old EP children and 40 age-matched term children participated in the Project K.I.D.S program and completed the Kids Empathy Development Scale (KEDS), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV), and Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch). Children born extremely preterm exhibited poorer performance on all measures. The mediating role of attention in empathy competence was not supported by mediation modelling when FSIQ was controlled. As predicted, the EP group showed weaker empathic development relative to typically developing children. They also showed poorer attentional abilities. However, the effect of preterm birth on empathy was not mediated by executive-level attention. The cognitive mechanisms underpinning poor empathy competence in EP children remain unclear. Future research needs to examine the role of inhibition, social-emotional recognition, and regulation.

The impact of an arts-based programme on the affective and cognitive components of empathic development

Medical education research demonstrates that empathic behaviour is amenable to positive change when targeted through educational programmes. This study evaluates the impact of an arts-based intervention designed to nurture learner...

Moral development: theory and applications

Part I. Moral Development in the 21st Century: Theoretical Roots and New Directions 1. Introduction 2. Classic Theories of Morality: Freud and Piaget 3. From Stages to Schemas: Kohlberg and Rest 4. Theoretical Challenges to Classic Cognitive Developmental Models 5.The Rise of Theories from Neuroscience and Evolutionary Perspectives 6. Global Perspectives: A Sampling of Research and Issues 7. Conclusion: In a Different Mind Part II. Applications of Theory to Practice 8. Applied Moral Education: Accomplishments and New Directions 9. Development Therapy: Helping Clients Grapple with Core Moral Issues 10. When Development Goes Awry: Deficits in moral and empathic development 11. Conclusion: How to Live and What to do?