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Maternal Responsiveness to Infant Distress and its Links to Early Empathy Development

Fri, March 22, 1:00 to 2:30pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 3, Room 348

Integrative Statement

The current study examined the links between maternal responses to infant distress at 6-months, and subsequent empathic and prosocial responses at 12- and 18-months. Following prior work with older children (e.g., Davidov & Grusec, 2006), we hypothesized that mothers’ sensitive responding to their infants’ distress would promote the development of empathy for others and prosocial behavior.
A longitudinal sample of infants was collected, N=155 at 6-months (half girls; Ns at 12- and 18-months were 151 and 147, respectively). Maternal responsiveness to infants' distress was assessed when infants were 6-months-old using two measures: interview and behavioral observation. The interviews asked mothers to describe their reactions in four situations where their infant might be distressed: crying, illness, separation, and bedtime. Their responses were recorded, transcribed, and coded for responsiveness to distress content; scores for the four situations converged and were combined. The behavioral observations involved filming three types of mother-infant interactions: change of clothes, 2-minute play without toys, and 3-minute play with toys. All incidents of infant distress were coded and marked using INTERACT software, and the mother’s overall responsiveness to distress was then rated on a 5-point scale (adapted from Leerkes et al., 2009; McElwain & Booth-LaForce, 2006). Overall, N=97 (63% of infants) showed some distress during the interaction. We also coded specific maternal responses (e.g., ignoring of distress; over-stimulating when child is distressed). Inter-rater reliabilities were appropriate for all measures.
Children's empathy for others in distress was observed at 6, 12, and 18-months, via three different simulations: maternal and experimenter enacted distress, and a video of a crying peer. Infants’ responses were filmed and coded for several relevant dimensions, including: empathic-concern, inquiry behavior/hypothesis-testing, self-distress, and prosocial behavior, using Zahn-Waxler and Robinson’s validated coding scheme.
Results revealed that the two measures of maternal response to infant distress—interviews and observations—were uncorrelated (r=.13, p=.195), and functioned in very different ways. Mothers' behavioral observations yielded results consistent with our hypothesis: Linear regression models showed that mothers’ behavioral responsiveness to infant distress was positively linked to children’s subsequent empathic responses at 18-months (but not at 12-months)—both for empathic concern (β=.23, p=.028) and inquiry/hypothesis testing (β=.34, p=.001)—over and above the 6-months empathic measures (see Figure 1). Interestingly, the effect on empathic concern appeared to involve mothers’ over-stimulation response, whereas the effect on inquiry behavior did not. Moreover, the specific maternal response of ignoring her infant’s distress predicted lower empathic concern at 12-months, controlling for 6-months concern (β=-.25, p=.002).
In contrast, contrary to our hypothesis, mothers’ interview responsiveness to distress was a significant positive predictor of child’s self-focused distress at 18 months (β=.23, p=.006), and this relationship was non-linear (quadratic component: β=.69, p=.053). Thus, moderate (average) levels of interview-responsiveness were linked to the lowest levels of child’ self-distress (see Figure 2a). Similarly, a non-linear pattern also emerged for the link between interview-responsiveness and prosocial behavior toward a distressed other at 18-months (Figure 2b).
The results suggest that the behavioral measure is more conducive to subsequent empathy development. Interpretations and implications will be discussed.

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