Compliance or empathy—What links maternal sensitivity and toddlers’ emotional helping?

Tamara Becher (Korresp. Autor*in), Samuel Essler, Carolina Pletti, Markus Paulus

Veröffentlichungen: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelPeer Reviewed

Abstract

Emotional helping—that is, helping based on others’ emotional distress—has been suggested to be a central prosocial response to others in need. Developmental theorizing proposed that emotional helping has social origins. Whereas research indeed demonstrated a link between maternal sensitivity and children's emotional helping, developmental theories stress different mediating processes. Emotion-sharing theories claim empathic concern to be the crucial link for helping, whereas internalization theories base children's helping on children's compliance. To investigate these hypotheses, the current study explored empathy and compliance as two possible mediators for the relation between maternal sensitivity and children's emotional helping at 18 months of age. Overall, maternal sensitivity was positively related to children's empathy, children's compliance, and children's emotional helping. Interestingly, children's empathy—but not children's compliance—mediated the link between maternal sensitivity and children's emotional helping. These findings deepen our understanding of the psychological processes subserving emotional helping during infancy and support theories that stress the socioemotional origins of children's prosocial behavior.

OriginalspracheEnglisch
Aufsatznummer105547
Seitenumfang14
FachzeitschriftJournal of Experimental Child Psychology
Jahrgang226
DOIs
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - Feb. 2023
Extern publiziertJa

ÖFOS 2012

  • 501005 Entwicklungspsychologie

Zitationsweisen