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Infant emotional responses to challenge predict empathic behavior in toddlerhood.

ABSTRACT: Although emotional responses are theorized to be important in the development of empathy, findings regarding the prediction of early empathic behavior by infant behavioral and physiological responses are mixed. This study examined whether behavioral and physiological responses to mild emotional challenge (still face paradigm and car seat task) in 118 infants at age 6 months predicted empathic distress and empathic concern in response to an empathy-evoking task (i.e, experimenter's distress simulation) at age 20 months. Correlation analyses, corrected for sex and baseline levels of physiological arousal, showed that stronger physiological and behavioral responses to emotional challenge at age 6 months were positively related to observed empathic distress, but not empathic concern, at age 20 months. Linear regression analyses indicated that physiological and behavioral responses to challenge at 6 months independently predicted empathic distress at 20 months, which suggests an important role for both physiological and behavioral emotional responses in empathy development. In addition, curvilinear regression analyses showed quadratic associations between behavioral responses at 6 months, and empathic distress and empathic concern at 20 months, which indicates that moderate levels of behavioral responsivity predict the highest levels of empathic distress and empathic concern.

SUBMITTER: Noten MMPG

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7217152 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Infant emotional responses to challenge predict empathic behavior in toddlerhood.

Noten Malou M P G MMPG van der Heijden Kristiaan B KB Huijbregts Stephan C J SCJ van Goozen Stephanie H M SHM Swaab Hanna H

Developmental psychobiology 20190906 4

Although emotional responses are theorized to be important in the development of empathy, findings regarding the prediction of early empathic behavior by infant behavioral and physiological responses are mixed. This study examined whether behavioral and physiological responses to mild emotional challenge (still face paradigm and car seat task) in 118 infants at age 6 months predicted empathic distress and empathic concern in response to an empathy-evoking task (i.e, experimenter's distress simul ...[more]

PMID: 31489632

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Project description:The assessment of individual traits requires that tests are reliable (i.e. consistency over time) and externally valid, meaning that they predict future responses in similar contexts (i.e. convergent validity) but do not predict responses to unrelated situations (i.e. discriminant validity). The aim of this study was to determine if dairy calf personality traits (Fearfulness, Sociability and Pessimism), derived from behaviours expressed in standardized tests, predict individuals' responses in related situations. The first experiment tested if the trait 'Sociability' was related to the expression of social behaviour in the home-pen, with calves assigned individual proximity scores (based on proximity to other calves) while they were in their home-pen at approximately 113 and 118 d of age. The second experiment aimed at exploring whether traits 'Fearfulness' and 'Pessimism' were related to the calves' emotional response to transportation. All calves were subjected to two 10-min transportation challenges done on two consecutive days. Emotional response was assessed using the maximum eye temperature (measured using infrared thermography) and the number of vocalizations emitted. Social proximity scores (Experiment 1), vocalizations emitted and maximum eye temperature after loading (Experiment 2) were consistent over time. In addition, the results showed good convergent validity with calves scoring higher in Sociability also having higher proximity scores in the home-pen, and animals scoring higher in Fearfulness and Pessimism showing a more intense emotional response to transportation. The results also showed good discriminant validity, as neither Fearfulness nor Pessimism were associated with the expression of social behaviours (Experiment 1) and Sociability was not associated with the animal's emotional response to transportation (Experiment 2). We conclude that the methodology used to measure personality traits shows good reliability and external validity.

Dataset Information

Infant emotional responses to challenge predict empathic behavior in toddlerhood.

Publications

Infant emotional responses to challenge predict empathic behavior in toddlerhood.

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