Links Between Early Mental State Understanding and Toddlers’ Empathic Responding to Another’s Distress

• In Event: 1-022 - Affective Cognition: Bidirectional Influences of Emotion and Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Understanding internal states is likely a key factor necessary for effective responding to the distress of others (Eisenberg, 2006). Indeed, evidence from older children and adolescents suggests that an understanding of others’ mental states is related to acting on their behalf (Carlo, 2014). However, little is known about the relations between emerging mental state understanding and responses to others’ distress in very young children. The aim of the present studies is to examine links between early foundational mental state understanding and emerging empathic responding to another’s distress.

Study 1
Method. Participants included 80 24-month-olds. Mental state understanding was assessed via (1) a behavioral task measuring toddlers’ understanding that an experimenter has a desire different from their own (Repacholi & Gopnik, 1997), and (2) a parent-report measure of toddlers’ mental state vocabulary production (Internal State Language Questionnaire; Brethorn & Beeghly, 1982). Empathic responding to another’s distress was assessed across two behavioral tasks in which toddlers could retrieve a comforting object when an experimenter hurt herself or provide a blanket when she was cold (Svetlova, Nichols, & Brownell, 2010).

Results. Gender and SES were entered as covariates in regression models testing relations between toddlers’ responding to another’s distress and their understanding of desires and mental state vocabulary (see Table 1). Both understanding of desires and mental state vocabulary were positively associated with toddlers’ likelihood of helping the experimenter in distress. Mental state vocabulary was also positively related to toddlers’ readiness to help, meaning that toddlers with larger mental state vocabularies helped faster and following fewer experimenter cues.

Study 2
Method. Longitudinal data from a subset of Study 1 participants (n = 35) allowed for additional exploration of links between empathic responding at 24 months and the emerging understanding of mental states in infancy (8 to 12 months; M = 9.4). Infants’ ability to reason about the intentional nature of an ongoing reaching action was assessed in an anticipatory-looking paradigm. In addition, infants’ understanding of attention was assessed via infants’ tendency to share attention with an experimenter in a structured play session (Bakeman & Adamson, 1984).

Results. Longitudinal data were analyzed using partial correlations controlling for infants’ age, gender, and SES (see Table 2). Infants’ intention understanding and tendency to engage in shared attention with the experimenter were both positively related to their readiness to respond to another’s distress as toddlers.

Overall, the current studies provide some of the first evidence of links between mental state understanding and empathic responding in very young children. Concurrent analyses indicated that toddlers who demonstrated more advanced mental state understanding were more likely to respond effectively to the distress of others. Furthermore, longitudinal data revealed that infants who showed better understanding of intention and attention at 8 to 12 months were more sophisticated in their empathic helping responses as toddlers. Together, these findings suggest that early mental state understanding may support the emerging capacity to respond empathically to another’s distress.

Authors

• Wyntre Stout, Lehigh University
  Presenting Author

• Erin Karahuta, Lehigh University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amanda C Brandone, Lehigh University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Deborah June Laible, Lehigh University
  Non-Presenting Author