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Journal
of
Personality
and
Social Psychology
1990,
Vol.
58, No.
4,709-717
Copyright
1990
by the
American Psychological
Association,
Inc.
0022-3514/90/S00.75
The
Family
Origins
of
Empathic
Concern:
A
26-Year
Longitudinal Study
Richard
Kpestner
McGill
University
Carol
Franz
Harvard
University
Joel
Weinberger
Derner
Institute,
Adelphi
University
This study examined whether adult empathic concern
was
associated
with parent behavior
in
early
childhood. Subjects
were
drawn
from
a
longitudinal sample
first
investigated
by
Sears,
Maccoby,
and
Levin (1957).
At age 31, 75
subjects completed
the
Adjective
Checklist
(Gough
&
Heilbrun,
1965, 1983),
from
which
an
index
of
empathic concern
was
derived. Scores
on
this index were
regressed
on
11
parenting dimensions derived
from
maternal interviews when
the
subjects were
5
years
old.
The
results
revealed
a
significant multiple
R
indicating that, taken together,
the
parenting
dimensions predicted
the
level
of
empathic concern
at age
31.
Adult
levels
of
empathic concern were
most strongly related
to the
following
parenting dimensions: paternal involvement
in
child care,
maternal tolerance
of
dependent behavior, maternal inhibition
of
child's aggression,
and
maternal
satisfaction
with
the
role
of
mother.
A
wide variety
of
meanings
have
been associated with
the
concept
of
empathy within
the
psychological literature.
A
con-
sensus seems
to
have
emerged,
however,
that empathy
can
most
usefully
be
viewed
as a
multidimensional construct with sig-
nificant
cognitive
and
affective
components (Goldstein
& Mi-
chaels,
1985).
The
abilities
to
discriminate other
people's
emo-
tions
and to
assume their perspectives
are the
central cognitive
capacities associated with empathy
(Feschbach,
1975).
The
affective
component
of
empathy,
often
referred
to as
"empathic
concern,"
can be
defined
as
"the tendency
to
experience
feelings
of
sympathy
and
compassion
for
others"
(Davis
&
Oathout,
1987).
Questionnaire inventories
of
empathy
differ
in the ex-
tent
to
which they assess
the
affective
or
cognitive component;
for
example,
the
Mehrabian-Epstein
Scale
(1972)
can be
viewed
as
relatively
affectively
oriented, whereas
the
Hogan
Scale
(1969)
is
more cognitive
in its
focus
(Davis,
1983a).
The
emotional component
of
empathy, which
is the
focus
of the
present investigation,
has
demonstrated considerable predictive
power
in the
realm
of
prosocial
moral reasoning
and
prosocial
behavior
(Batson,
Bolen,
Cross,
&
Neuringer-Benefiel,
1986;
Davis,
1983b;
Eisenberg-Berg
&
Mussen,
1978).
For
example,
among college students, empathic concern
was
positively
re-
lated
to
viewing
and
contributing
to the
annual muscular dys-
trophy telethon; more cognitive aspects
of
empathy, such
as
role
This research used
the
Patterns
of
Child
Rearing,
1951-1952 data
set
(made
accessible
in
1979,
raw and
machine-readable data
files).
These
data were collected
by R.
Sears,
E.
Maccoby,
and H.
Levin,
and are
available
through
the
archives
of the
Henry
A.
Murray Research Center
of
Radclifle
College,
Cambridge, Massachusetts. This study
was
funded
by
fellowships
granted
from
the
Seaver Institute
and by a
grant
from
the
Fonds
Pour
La
Formation
De
Chercheurs
Et
L'Aide
A La
Recherche
(FCAR-Quebec).
Correspondence concerning this article should
be
addressed
to
Rich-
ard
Koestner,
Psychology Department, McGill
University,
1205
Dr.
Penfield
Avenue,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H3A
1B1.
taking
and
fantasizing ability, were unrelated
to
either
viewing
or
contributing (Davis, 1983b).
Social philosophers have long been interested
in the
develop-
mental origins
of an
empathic disposition.
Not
surprisingly,
a
number
of
psychological
researchers
have suggested that par-
enting
practices
may
influence
the
development
of
empathy
and
related responses
in
children (cf. Eisenberg-Berg
&
Mussen,
1978;
Hoffman
&
Saltztein,
1967).
In a
recent review
of
this
literature,
Barnett
(1987)
proposed that
the
development
of em-
pathy
is
most
likely
to
occur
in a
family
environment that
(a)
satisfies
the
child's
own
emotional needs
and
discourages
exces-
sive
self-concern,
(b)
encourages
the
child
to
experience
and ex-
press
a
broad range
of
emotions,
and (c)
provides opportunities
for
the
child
to
observe
and
interact with others
who
encourage
emotional sensitivity
and
responsiveness. Because these condi-
tions focus
on
emotional responsiveness,
it can be
hypothesized
that they
are
particularly likely
to
foster
the
emotional
compo-
nent
of
empathy (empathic concern).
There
is
evidence that stable individual
differences
in em-
pathic responsiveness appear
in
children
as
early
as age 2
(Rad-
ke-Yarrow,
Zahn-Waxier,
&
Chapman, 1983); thus,
one
might
conclude that early parenting experiences
are of
primary
im-
portance
in the
development
of
empathic concern.
The
present
investigation
offered
a
unique opportunity
to use a
prospective
longitudinal
research
design
to
examine whether
parent
behav-
ior
in
early childhood
is
related
to the
long-term development
of
empathic concern. Subjects were drawn
from
a
sample
first
investigated
by
Sears, Maccoby,
and
Levin
(1957)
and
most
re-
cently
followed
up by
McClelland
and
Pilon
(1983).
When
sub-
jects
were
5
years
old
their mothers were interviewed about their
parenting behaviors
as
well
as the
parenting behaviors
of
their
spouses. These interviews were then rated
for a
variety
of
spe-
cific
maternal
and
paternal behaviors. Factor analyses
of
these
ratings revealed
(a)
eight maternal
dimensions—warmth,
strictness,
restricts sexuality, inhibits aggression, tolerates
de-
pendency, satisfaction with role
as
mother,
use of
physical pun-
709
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