title: Prediction of children's empathy-related responding from their effortful control and parents' expressivity.
abstract: In this study, the linear and interactive relations of children's effortful control and parents' emotional expressivity to children's empathy-related responses were examined. Participants were 214 children, 4.5 to 8 years old. Children's effortful control was negatively related to their personal distress and was positively related to their sympathy. Parents' positive expressivity was marginally negatively related to children's personal distress and was marginally positively related to children's dispositional sympathy. Parents' negative expressivity was positively related to children's personal distress, but primarily at high levels of children's effortful control. Moreover, parents' negative expressivity was negatively related to children's situational sympathy at low levels of effortful control but was positively related to children's dispositional sympathy at high levels of effortful control. There were also quadratic relations between the measures of parents' expressivity and children's empathy-related responses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA. valiente@asu.edu
authors.forename: Carlos
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Valiente
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Fabes
authors.forename: Stephanie A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Shepard
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cumberland
authors.forename: Sandra H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Losoya
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D013315:Stress, Psychological