Poster #129 - Attachment style and empathy: Meta-analytic review.

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Integrative Statement

Attachment has been defined as the strong affectional bond to a particular other, which depends on the early interactions between a child and its primary caregiver (Bowlby, 1973). Infants search for the caregivers as secure bases from which to explore the world and return to them to look for support and comfort (Ainsworth, 1979). If the caregiver has provided availability for the child, it will develop positive internal working models of self and others (Bretherton, Ridgeway, & Cassidy, 1990) and emotional regulation strategies (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). These are related to socio-emotional skills, in particular, empathy, which contributes to the management of relationships (Khodabakhsh & Besharat, 2011). Empathy is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct (Davis, 1983) with cognitive and affective components but also includes neurobiological processes, which seem to be shared with attachment (Ruckstaetter, Sells, Newmeyer, & Zink, 2017).
The objective of this meta-analysis is to examine the relations between secure and insecure attachment style and empathy in children. We included longitudinal and cross-sectional studies on children and adolescents that were published from 2000 to 2018 written in Spanish and English. The dataset included were Scielo, LatinMed, PsychInfo, Dialnet, Science Direct, EbscoHost, JStor, and NCBI. We excluded the studies that focused on peer and partner attachment. We used the Comprehensive Meta-analysis V2 program to calculate Forest plot, Funnel plot, and heterogeneity.
The correlation between secure attachment and empathy was extracted from 13 papers. The data were reported from 9075 participants. Results show a positive relation between secure attachment and empathy, the mean weighted correlation was r = .31, (95% CI= 0.29, 0.33, Z-value= 30,14, p ≤.001). See Figure 1.
The correlation between insecure attachment and empathy was extracted from 6 studies. The data were reported from 3257 participants. Towards avoidant attachment the results show that there is a negative relation between anxious attachment and empathy, the mean weighted correlation was r=-.23, (95% CI= -0.27, -0.20, Z-value= -13.51; p≤.001). See Figure 2. In relation with anxious attachment, results show that there is a low negative relation between anxious attachment and empathy, the mean weighted correlation was r=-.011, (95% CI= -0.15, -0.08, Z-value= -6.45; p≤.000).
To conclude, our results confirm the positive relation between secure attachment and empathy found in the literature (Zahn-Waxler & Radke-Yarrow, 1990). Moreover, we found a negative relation between avoidant attachment and empathy. This would be explained because avoidant attachment children may respond to other’s distress with high physiological arousal, showing almost no concern, and suppressing empathy in an attempt to ignore or escape other’s pain (Stern & Cassidy, 2017). Finally, there are mixed results about the relation between anxious attachment and empathy. While some studies found a negative relation (Britton & Fuendeling, 2005), others found a positive association (Trusty, Ng, & Watts, 2005; Wei, Liao, Ku, & Shaffer, 2011). Our results indicated that anxious attachment can develop a low level of empathy, but this relation was not very strong.

Authors

• Florencia De Sanctis, CIIPME
  Presenting Author

• Belén Mesurado, National Scientific and Technical Research Council
  Non-Presenting Author

• Paulina Guerra, CONICET
  Non-Presenting Author