When Empathic Predispositions Integrate into the Self: Toddlers’ Empathic Responses Relate to their Childhood Values

• In Event: 2-142 - Predictors and Outcomes of Early Empathy and Prosocial Development: Findings from Longitudinal Investigations

Integrative Statement

Introduction. Starting from infancy and continuing onward, children show stable individual differences in their tendency to express empathy toward others in distress (Knafo, Zahn-Waxler, Van Hulle, Robinson, & Rhee, 2008; Roth-Hanania, Davidov, & Zahn-Waxler, 2011). These early individual differences begin before children form their personal identity, a process which begins at the age of three-four years and increases at the age of five to seven years (Harter, 2006), and before they consolidate their personal values- abstract goals that serve as guiding principles across situations and are an important part of the self (Schwartz, 2012). Here we investigated whether toddlers’ responses to others’ distress at the ages of 9, 18 and 34 months relate to their personal values at the age of 5-6 years. We hypothesized that empathic responses would relate positively to values that reflect self-transcendence (benevolence and universalism) and negatively to values that reflect self-enhancement (achievement and power over others). Such results would indicate that an initial tendency to express empathy toward others becomes part of children’s self-definition when they grow older.
Method. Parents and 5-6 years old children (N=127, mean age=68.91 months, SD=5.07, 50% girls) were invited to participate in a laboratory session on early values development. These children participated in previous research as part of a larger study, when they were nine months (N=98, mean age=9.45, SD=.43, 52% girls), 18 months (N=112, mean age=18.2, SD=.73, 47% girls), and 34 months old (N=79, mean age=34.92, SD=.73, 51% girls). Empathic responding (empathic concern) and non-prosocial reactions (avoidance/disinterest) were examined by infants’ responses to an experimenter’s simulated distress. Personal values were examined with the Picture-Based Value Survey for Children (PBVS-C) (Döring, Blauensteiner, Aryus, Drogekamp, & Bilsky, 2010).
Results. Both empathic concern and avoidance/disinterest at 9 months did not relate to values of self-transcendence or self-enhancement at the age of 5-6 years (r ranges from .00 to -.01). Starting from 18 months, a more theoretically reasonable pattern was revealed. Empathic concern at the age of 18 months and 34 months showed a weak and non-significant positive relation with the axis of self-transcendence vs. self-enhancement values (18 months: r=.12, p=.106, 1-tailed; 34 months: r=.12, p=.142, 1-tailed). Interestingly, avoidance/disinterest showed a significant negative relation with self-transcendence vs. self-enhancement values at the age of 18 months (r= -.21, p=.015, 1-tailed), and 34 months (r= -.20, p=.043, 1-tailed).
Conclusions. In this study we explored the relation between children’s empathy and values. We found that toddlers (but not infants) who exhibit non-prosocial reactions (avoidance/disinterest) to an experimenter’s distress, declare a few years later that values of power over others and achievement are more important to them than values that reflect caring and self-transcendence. This suggests that toddlers’ predispositions become part of children’s values system and self-identity. One way in which individuals’ predispositions may integrate into the self is through socialization. A future direction, to be discussed, is to examine whether parental values moderate the relation between children’s empathic reactions and personal values.

Authors

• Lior Abramson, Hebrew university of Jerusalem
  Presenting Author

• Adi Dan, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ariel Knafo-Noam, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  Non-Presenting Author