Empathy as a Risky Strength: Effects of Emotional Empathy on Adolescent Internalizing Symptoms

• In Event: Poster Session 11
  In Poster Session: PS 11 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Introduction. Emotional empathy involves emotional resonance and compassionate responses to others’ emotional states (Shamay-Tsoory et al., 2009), a hallmark of supportive interpersonal relationships (Ciarrochi et al., 2017). Despite the positive outcomes associated with empathy, some literature suggests that the typically adaptive characteristic can lead to negative outcomes in certain contexts. In recent years the relationship between emotional empathy and internalizing symptoms has received increased attention (Tone & Tully, 2014), but few researchers have examined this relationship in adolescence, a period of increasingly intense relationships and a heightened risk for internalizing disorders (Bradford et al., 2008; Kessler et al., 2005). The current study examines how adolescent emotional empathy may serve as a risky strength for internalizing symptoms in the context of interpersonal stress.
Method. Data were obtained from a community sample of 184 ethnically and socioeconomically diverse participants (98 females; 58% Caucasian, 29% Black, 13% mixed/other; median income = $40,000-59,000). The present study utilizes interview data and annual assessments with peers at ages 16, 17, and 18. Each year, target teens and their nominated closest friend participated in an observed Supportive Behavior Task (SBT), during which the friend asked the teen for help with a “problem they were having that they could use some advice or support about.” Researchers coded this interaction using the Supportive Behavior Task Coding System for Adolescent Peer Dyads for the target teens’ (a) emotional support provision and (b) engagement with the peer. These two constructs reflected the target teens’ demonstrated emotional empathy for their close friends. Survey data also captured the target teens’ social acceptance among peers, experiences of emotional abuse and neglect from their families, and depressive and anxious symptoms. Regression analyses were used to determine interpersonal and empathic predictors (ages 16-17) of relative change in self-reported internalizing symptoms from ages 16-17 to 18.
Results and Discussion. A visual summary of results is presented in Table 1 and Figure 1. Higher levels of observed emotional empathy predicted greater close friend reports of the teens’ friendship quality and social acceptance among peers, consistent with research demonstrating the social adaptive functions of empathy. Target teens’ emotional empathy was not associated with self-reports of social acceptance among peers, familial emotional abuse and neglect, or internalizing symptoms at any time point. Regression analyses demonstrated a more complex relation between teens’ emotional empathy and internalizing symptoms when evaluated in the context of social distress: Emotional empathy interacted with familial emotional abuse and neglect to predict relative change in internalizing symptoms, such that emotionally empathic teens were more likely to exhibit an increase in internalizing symptoms if they experienced emotional abuse and neglect from their families. Emotional empathy also interacted with teens’ social acceptance among peers to predict relative change in internalizing symptoms, such that teens who displayed more emotional empathy were more likely to experience increased internalizing symptoms if they were less socially accepted among their peers. Findings suggest that empathy may be a “risky strength” in adolescence, contributing to increasing internalizing symptoms in the context of specific social stressors.

Authors

• Caroline K. Fowler, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Presenting Author

• Jessica A Stern, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author

• Joseph P Allen, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author