Skip to main content
NCBI home page
NIHPA Author Manuscripts logoLink to NIHPA Author Manuscripts
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2026 May 2.
Published before final editing as: J Posit Psychol. 2025 May 2:10.1080/17439760.2025.2498129. doi: 10.1080/17439760.2025.2498129

Early Childhood Precursors of Compassionate Concern for Others: A 17-year Longitudinal Study

Sujin Lee 1, Ka I Ip 2, Ramaswami Mahalingam 3, Sheryl L Olson 4
PMCID: PMC12530149  NIHMSID: NIHMS2078494  PMID: 41113815

Abstract

We examined early developmental pathways to compassionate concern for others in emerging adulthood by integrating child individual (gender, empathy), parental (positive parenting), and broad contextual (resources and stresses perceived by mothers) characteristics in childhood using a 17-year longitudinal data. Participants were 241 children (49% girls) and their mothers. Data were collected at 3, 6, and 19 years of child age, using multiple methods and informants. Results of structural equation modeling indicated an indirect pathway from early childhood maternal adjustment to child empathy three years later via positive parenting. In addition, having high levels of empathy in middle childhood and being a female predicted higher levels of compassionate concern in emerging adulthood. Our findings highlight the importance of maternal resources and support, in addition to parenting behaviors, in enhancing children’s prosocial behaviors, and provide hints for early intervention to promote compassionate concern for others in emerging adulthood.

Keywords: compassion, empathy, parenting, maternal adjustment, longitudinal

Since ancient times, compassionate concern for others has been one of the most highly esteemed and culturally universal human virtues (Mahalingam, 2019). Compassionate concern for others can be defined as our capacity to understand the suffering of others and act upon it (Mahalingam, 2019). Compassion is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct that consists of cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes (Gilbert, 2017). For example, compassion requires awareness and understanding of suffering, feeling sympathy or empathy for those who are suffering, and motivation to act to alleviate the suffering (Strauss et al., 2016). This definition differentiates compassion from empathy or sympathy, which refers to emotional reactions based on understanding of concern for the other person (Goetz et al., 2010).

Previous literature has shown that compassion for others enhances one’s life by benefitting social relationships and individual well-being and promoting prosocial behaviors. This is distinguished from empathy, which sometimes may lead to empathetic distress, burnout, or disengagement with others in need in certain situations (Bloom, 2017). For example, compassionate concern for others has been associated with a diverse range of prosocial attitudes and behaviors and is inversely correlated with emotional distress and antisocial behaviors (e.g., Barkin et al., 2015; Lim & DeSteno, 2016). In recent decades, intervention studies have been conducted to foster compassion toward self and others. These studies suggest that compassion can be enhanced by training, and that this results in positive outcomes, including increased meaning in life, positive emotions, and prosocial behaviors (Cosley et al., 2010; Weng et al., 2013).

Although more research is needed to better understand the developmental underpinnings of compassion (Roeser & Eccles, 2015), researchers suggest that components of compassion develop from basic child characteristics and social experiences in the early years of life, including attachment bonds, experienced trust and security, empathy, and sympathy. Indeed, as early as 12 months, infants display empathic concern for others, and by around age 3, individual differences in sympathy are associated with prosocial behaviors (Spinrad & Eisenberg, 2017). During childhood, these prosocial behaviors become more generalized to others beyond close relationships, and over the course of development, these experiences and basic elements transform into more complex forms of compassion (Roeser et al., 2018). Researchers have shown marked individual differences in concern for others that are moderately stable across development (Eisenberg, Spinrad et al., 2015). However, we know relatively little about how these individual differences develop across the lifespan (Roeser & Eccles, 2015). In this study, we used longitudinal data to examine possible pathways through which positive social experiences in early childhood such as warm, responsive, non-coercive parenting predict compassionate concern for others in early adulthood. We defined compassionate concern for others as the extent to which young adults endorsed self-descriptions indicating high levels of commitment to caring about and helping other people in distress, even if they were strangers (Mahalingham, 2014).

Theoretical framework

Our study was grounded in a developmental systems framework that highlighted the interplay of contextual, familial, and intra-child characteristics across development (Sameroff, 2010). Prosocial behaviors and attitudes are thought to reflect complex interactions between individuals’ biological predispositions and social and cultural experiences. For example, prior research on children’s prosocial development has revealed moderate genetic, physiological, and environmental influences (Eisenberg, Spinrad, et al., 2015; Knafo-Noam et al., 2015). One notable gap in the literature is that we know relatively little about early childhood precursors of compassionate concern in adulthood. Grounded in the developmental systems perspective, our study aimed to address this gap by using prospective longitudinal data to identify early individual and familial characteristics that predict compassion for others in emerging adulthood. Exploring such developmental pathways from childhood can provide several benefits to our understanding and promotion of compassion, given that factors in early childhood period may set the stage for subsequent development of other adjustment outcomes consistent with the concept of positive developmental cascades (e.g., Cox et al., 2010). Since marked individual differences in prosocial attitudes and behaviors have been observed from earlier developmental periods, understanding whether and how these prosocial characteristics become associated with compassionate concerns for others in emerging adulthood may also help identify optimal timing of interventions to foster compassionate concern. Furthermore, compassion is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct affected by multiple risk and protective factors at different levels (Knafo-Noam et al., 2015; Strauss et al., 2016). Therefore, examining a dynamic interplay among environmental, familial, and child characteristics across substantial periods of time will provide a clearer picture of the complex nature of the development of compassion for others.

In this study, we highlighted individual contributions and interrelations among three different levels of predictive constructs: proximal parenting behaviors that have been linked to prosocial child characteristics, distal features of the family environment that influence quality of caregiving, and individual characteristics of children. We discuss each construct below.

Early parenting behaviors:

A large body of prior research has revealed positive associations between warm, responsive parenting and prosocial behaviors in children and adolescents. For example, children who experience relatively high levels of maternal warmth and sensitive responsiveness tend to be higher than others in empathy (experiencing emotions similar to those that others are feeling), sympathy (experiencing a concern for others), and prosocial behavior (voluntary behaviors that benefit others) (Spinrad & Eisenberg, 2019). The weight of empirical evidence and theory supports the importance of positive parent-child relationships in promoting children’s sympathy and concern for others through modeling, enhancing motivation for positive feelings and behaviors, and internalization of parental values (e.g., Eisenberg, VanSchyndel, et al., 2015; Kochanska et al., 2010). Conversely, high levels of punitive parenting have been theoretically and empirically linked to low levels of children’s concern for others as well as frank antisocial behavior (Gershoff & Grogan-Kaylor, 2016; Lansford, 2019).

To what extent does positive parenting in early childhood relate to compassionate concern for others in adulthood? To the best of our knowledge, there has been little prior research on this question, even though it has important implications for both theory and our practical understanding of how to promote lasting concern for others. However, Eisenberg, Van Schyndal, and Hofer (2015) conducted a longitudinal study with direct relevance to these issues. Eisenberg and colleagues studied a small sample of individuals (16 boys and 16 girls) who had been repeatedly assessed across the school-age period, adolescence, and early adulthood. Maternal ratings of positive guidance and expression of positive affect and enjoyment of the child were summed across each developmental period and related to self- and friends’ ratings of sympathetic concern for others in early adulthood (ages 19 to 32 years). Controlling for gender, young adults whose mothers reported using inductive discipline and warm, supportive parenting during their childhoods tended to be perceived by adult friends as high in sympathy and concern for others. Similarly, offspring who reported relatively high levels of sympathetic concern between 19–24 years had mothers who displayed relatively high levels of warm, supportive parenting during their childhoods. Most of these associations remained intact even when the authors controlled for earlier levels of empathy during childhood and adolescence. Thus, although limited by a small sample size, Eisenberg et al.’s findings showed that young adults who manifested high levels of sympathetic concern for others tended to experience relatively high levels of warm, supportive caregiving in childhood. Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have traced these associations beginning in early childhood, a time of active socialization of fundamental developmental competencies, including the rudiments of conscience and social cognition (e.g., Kochanska et al., 2010; Wellman et al., 2001). Finally, as Eisenberg et al. (2015) recommended, we need further studies that focus on a broad spectrum of positive and negative parenting behaviors.

Distal family stressors and resources.

Parenting behaviors closely reflect the influence of stressors and resources that vary considerably between families, including economic strain, family climate, parents’ mental health, and quality of social support (Sameroff, 2020). Given our interest in early caregiving behaviors as possible foundations for compassion toward others, we hypothesized that a broad range of family stressors and resources might be associated with parents’ ability to provide sensitive, responsive care to their young children. For example, parents with adequate internal resources such as mental health and external resources such as social support and financial stability may be more responsive to their children’s needs than others, in part due to experiencing lower daily stress levels (e.g., Lee et al., 2022)

Characteristics of individual children.

Finally, we also considered two characteristics of individual children that have been linked with prosocial attitudes and behaviors in previous studies: empathic concern for others and the female gender. Individual differences in concern for others develop early in life, are moderately stable across developmental transitions, and have been positively associated with prosocial behaviors (e.g., Paz et al., 2021; Spinrad & Eisenberg, 2019). Moreover, warm and responsive caregiving has been associated with children’s levels of sympathetic and empathic concern for others, with the most robust links for sympathetic concern (Eisenberg, VanSchyndel, et al., 2015). Finally, a substantial body of research has shown that girls tend to show higher levels of concern for others than boys and that these gender differences emerge early in life (e.g., Eisenberg, Spinrad et al., 2015; Zahn-Waxler et al., 2018), albeit the robustness of these differences strongly reflects the types of measures used to assess empathic responding (Eisenberg & Lennon, l983).

In the current study, our interest was in developing models that explained how early social experiences may become associated with compassionate concern for others in adulthood. As shown above, individual and social factors that have been linked with children’s concern for others tend to be intercorrelated; however, as Eisenberg et al. (2015) have emphasized, few investigators have examined multiple domains of influence in relation to children’s long-term prosocial outcomes. Therefore, we examined associations among family/maternal resources, positive parenting behaviors, child gender, and children’s school-age levels of empathy for others, with the assumption that child characteristics that reflect warm, responsive, non-coercive parenting experiences may have the most direct links with young adults’ compassionate attitudes. To our knowledge, no previous studies have examined explanatory mechanisms linking early childhood social experiences with compassionate attitudes toward others in later life.

Rationale and objectives

In summary, there have been relatively few longitudinal studies of early childhood precursors of compassionate attitudes toward others in adulthood. Existing studies have highlighted singular predictive constructs such as parenting behaviors or child traits without simultaneously considering other associated influences or explanatory mechanisms. To address these gaps in knowledge, we used data from a 17-year longitudinal study that began when children were three years old. In this study, children and families were assessed in home, preschool/school, and laboratory settings at ages 3 and 6, with follow-up assessments at age 19. Our first objective was to determine how broader patterns of parental resources (e.g., emotional adjustment, family harmony, and perceived social support) and the early parenting behaviors would be associated with individual differences in children’s empathy in childhood. We hypothesized that positive maternal resources would be linked with high levels of positive parenting in early childhood and that positive parenting, in turn, would predict children’s empathy at age 6. Our second objective was to examine individual characteristics of children that predict compassionate concern for others at age 19. Specifically, we linked female gender and levels of childhood empathy to compassionate concern for others at age 19. Based on previous research, we hypothesized that both child characteristics would be directly related to individual differences in compassion at age 19. Finally, we examined whether preschool-age children whose parents had more parenting resources would show relatively high levels of later compassionate concern via more positive parenting (i.e., high levels of warm, responsive caregiving and low levels of harsh discipline) and high levels of childhood empathy. In light of Eisenberg et al.’s (2015) findings with school-age children and adolescents, we expected to find both direct and indirect positive associations among these variables. Our primary analytic objective was to construct a complex structural equation model that integrated all of these precursors across a 17-year time span. Specific hypotheses were as follows:

  1. Maternal resources and positive parenting at age 3 will be positively associated with child empathy at age 6. Furthermore, higher levels of maternal resources will be associated with better child empathy via higher levels of positive parenting.

  2. Female gender and childhood levels of empathy at age 6 will be positively associated with compassionate concern toward others at age 19.

  3. Maternal resources will be positively associated with compassionate concern towards others at age 19 via positive parenting at age 3 and child empathy at age 6.

Method

Participants

Participants were 241 children (49% girls) and their mothers who were enrolled in a larger ongoing multi-wave study that tracked the development of children’s behavioral problems starting at age 3 (Olson et al., 2005). The initial recruitment consists of 241 participants at Wave 1 (ages 2.5–4; M = 3.14 years, SD = .23), 228 participants (ages 5 – 6; M = 5.28 years, SD = .23) at Wave 2, and 147 participants (47% girls, ages 17 – 23; M = 19.08 years, SD = 1.09) at the current wave (Wave 3), in which we assessed young adult self-reports of compassion towards others.

At Wave 1 (age 3), families were recruited using local and regional newspaper ads, fliers posted at daycare centers and preschools, and referrals by preschool teachers and pediatricians. Due to the initial design of the study, children were recruited to represent the full range of externalizing and internalizing problems scale of the mother-reported CBCL 2 – 3, with an oversampling of toddlers in the moderate to high range of externalizing problems (T > 60 = 44.5%). The percentages of children whose externalizing problems scores were in the clinical range (T ≥ 64) and the borderline 6.3% at ages 3, 5.3% at ages 6 based on the reports from mother. Among target children, 86% were non-Hispanic European American, followed by Biracial (8.7%), African American (3.4%), Hispanic American (0.4%), and Asian American (0.4%). 89% of mothers reported being married, 5% single, 3% living with a partner, and 3% separated or divorced; approximately 6% were in blended or stepfamilies. 92% of households had at least two adults living with the target child, whereas 8% of households had a single, separated, or divorced parent.

During initial recruitment (Wave 1) from 1999 to 2001, 43% of mothers and 32% of fathers reported a bachelor’s degree as their highest level of education, and another 39% of mothers and 46% of fathers reported some graduate or professional training. Approximately 14% of mothers and 10% of fathers reported partial college experience or specialized training, and about 4% of mothers and 11% of fathers reported a high school diploma as their highest level of education (one mother and three fathers reported partial high school completion up to tenth or eleventh grade). The average annual family income at recruitment was between $60,000 and $70,000, although incomes ranged from $10,000 to more than $100,000. Additionally, children with serious chronic health problems, intellectual disability, and/or pervasive developmental disorders were not included in the study. See Olson et al (2005) for more details of the study sample and study procedure.

Wave 1 (Age 3) Measures

Measures of maternal resources

Maternal mental health.

The Global Severity Index from the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis & Melisaratos, 1983) was used as a measure of maternal mental health. The BSI is a 53-item questionnaire which assesses individual differences in psychological distress and impairment. The BSI has high internal consistency and excellent test-retest reliability ranging from .68 to .91 and has been highly correlated (r = .92 to .98) with the SCL-90-R on similar symptom dimensions. Items were reverse-coded to reflect the positive dimension of maternal mental health in our study, so higher scores indicated a less psychological distress.

Family functioning.

Family functioning was assessed using the 12 items from the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD; Epstein et al., 1983). Sample items include “In times of crises, we can turn to each other for support”, “We don’t get along well together,” and “There are lots of bad feelings in the family.” The FAD has adequate test-retest reliability, good predictive and concurrent validity, low correlations with social desirability, moderate correlations with other self-report measures of family functioning and differentiates significantly between clinician-rated healthy and unhealthy families (Epstein et al., 1983). In this study, items were reversed-coded so that a higher score indicates a healthier family functioning.

Perceived social support was assessed using the Social Isolation Subscale of the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1983), in which mothers reported their perceived levels of social connectedness and support. Social Isolation Subscale consists of six items, ranging from 1 (strongly agree) to 5 (strongly disagree). Sample item includes “When I run into a problem taking care of my children, I have a lot of people to whom I can talk to get help or advice.” (α = .95 in this study). In order to reflect the positive dimension of maternal resources, items were reverse-coded, and higher scores indicated more social support, psychological stability, and familial connectedness.

Measures of positive parenting

Positive appraisals of child behavior.

At W1, mothers rated 11 items measuring caregivers’ perception of their child’s responsiveness and reciprocal affection towards them. Specifically, six items reflecting perceptions of child responsiveness (e.g., My child seems to prefer spending time by himself/herself rather than with me,” and “I wish my child were more affectionate to me.”) were adapted from the Unresponsiveness scale, an index of maternal perceptions of the attachment relationship, in the Maternal Perceptions Questionnaire (α = 0.75; MPQ; Olson et al., 1982). The MPQ has been shown to have high internal consistency, stability, and predictive validity (Olson et al., 1982). In addition, five items reflecting perceptions of a child’s affection were taken from the Child Reinforces Parent subscale in the Parenting Stress Index (PSI; Abidin, 1983). Sample items included: “Sometimes I feel my child doesn’t like me and doesn’t want to be close to me,” and “When I do things for my child, I get the feeling that my efforts are not appreciated very much.” Items were reverse-coded to reflect the positive dimension of parenting in our study, so higher scores indicated a more positive appraisal of children’s behavior (α = .67 in this study).

Self-perceived caregiving efficacy.

The Sense of Competence subscale of the PSI (Abidin, 1983) was used to assess self-reported caregiving efficacy related to parenting at W1. The Parenting Stress Index has been found to have good test-retest reliability, convergent validity, and criterion-related validity (Feindler et al., 2003). Sample items included: “As a parent, I feel that I am very good,” “Child likes to play with me.” (α = .53 in this study)

Parental warmth.

Mothers completed the Parenting Dimensions Inventory at W1 (PDI; Power, 1993). The Nurturance and Responsiveness subscales, theoretically related as dimensions of parental warmth, were averaged to form a total score, Warm Responsiveness. Sample items included “My child and I have warm intimate moments together” (nurturance); and “I encourage my child to express his/her opinion” (responsiveness) (α = .76 in this study).

Corporal punishment.

During the home interview at W1, mothers reported how frequently they and their partner had physically disciplined their child (e.g., spank, grab, shake) during the last three months (Dodge et al., 1994). The 5-point scale ranged from “never” (0), “once a month” (1), “once a week” (2), “daily” (3), and “several times daily” (4). Due to the low frequency of corporal punishment, we adapted this measure by creating a rank-order scale based on the frequency with which the mother reported that her child received physical punishment from either parent (Kerr et al., 2004). For example, the lowest score was assigned to children who received no physical punishment from either their mother or father. Children assigned the next lowest score received no physical punishment from one parent but were physically punished once per month by the other parent, and so on. Children who experienced physical punishment several times daily from both parents received the highest score. This procedure yielded a total score of Corporal Punishment.

Wave 2 (Age 6) Measure

Child empathy.

At Wave 2, children’s levels of empathy were assessed using Kochanska et al.’s (1994) My Child questionnaire reported by mothers. This instrument has been validated and associated with children’s conscience-related behavior in a laboratory setting (Kochanska et al., 1994). Given our interest in the predictive role of empathy in childhood, we utilized the 13-item empathy subscale of the instrument (α = .76) that assesses empathic, prosocial responses to another’s distress. Sample items included “My child will try to comfort of reassure another in distress” and “My will feel sorry for other people who are hurt, sick or unhappy.” Higher scores indicated higher levels of empathy.

Wave 3 (Age 19) Measure

Compassionate concern for others.

At W3, emerging adults self-reported their levels of compassion towards others by answering five items derived from an adapted version of the Mindful Mindset Scale (Mahalingham, 2014). Initially, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted to examine the factor structure of the scale, resulting in a 3-factor solution. The first factor (“kindness and compassion toward others”) was used in this study. Specifically, 5 items with the highest factor loadings (all loadings > .64) were chosen to assess kindness and compassion for others. These 5-point Likert scale items included (1) “I take time to provide emotional support whenever I see there is a need”, (2) “Seeing other people happy brings me a lot of joy”, (3) “When someone needs emotional support, I take time to help them”, (4) “Being compassionate toward all human beings is an important life goal for me”, and (5) “I strive to be compassionate to the sufferings of those who are not related to me.” A higher score means being more compassionate and kinder towards others. To ensure that these items loaded onto the same construct, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to examine the latent structure of these items (see Data Analysis Plan below)

Covariates

We included maternal education and family SES when children were age 3 as covariates, given the evidence of the association of these factors with parental characteristics and child outcomes from prior literature (Mills-Koonce et al., 2016; Roubinov & Boyce, 2017).

Data Analysis Plan

In preliminary analyses, in addition to descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations between key variables, we conducted confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) using Mplus to examine whether measures of maternal mental health, family functioning, and perceived social support loaded on a single latent construct of maternal resources. Next, a separate CFA model was conducted to examine whether various parenting measures, including positive appraisals of child behavior, self-perceived caregiving efficacy, parental warmth, and corporal punishment loaded onto a latent construct of positive parenting. We also conducted a CFA using the five items reflecting kindness and compassion toward others to ensure the items are loaded onto the same construct. Multiple fit statistics are reported and interpreted as outlined by Kline (2004) (1) Pearson chi-square for which nonsignificant values signify good fit and a χ2/df ratio < 3 is acceptable; (2) Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) for which a value of <=.08 is considered acceptable and <= .05 is considered good. (3) Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) for which a value > .90 is considered a good fit, and (4) Standardized Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) < .08 is considered good. Standardized beta coefficients were reported for all analyses.

In subsequent analyses, we conducted structural equation modeling (SEM) to test our three hypotheses. For the first hypothesis, age 3 maternal resources and positive parenting were modeled as predictors of age 6 child empathy. For the second hypothesis, female gender and age 6 child empathy were modeled as predictors of age 19 compassionate concern. Furthermore, to test possible indirect pathways from early childhood environmental factors to compassionate concerns for the third hypothesis, age 3 maternal adjustment, positive parenting, and age 6 child empathy were modeled as predictors of individual differences in later compassion. Specifically, both positive parenting and child empathy were included as mediators in this final analysis. Model Indirect command in MPlus was used to test for indirect effect linking early childhood maternal resources and positive parenting to compassionate concern for others in early adulthood. Maternal education and SES at age 3 were included as covariates of all outcome variables. Similar multiple-fit statistics and fit criteria were used. Standardized beta coefficients were reported for all analyses. Please note that our hypotheses and analyses plan were not pre-registered.

Results

Missing Data and Attrition

Young adults who provided data at Wave 3 (compared to those who did not) had mothers with higher levels of education compared to those who did not (M = 6.3, SD = .72, vs. M = 5.9, SD = .97; t(224) = 3.33, p = 001). No other missing data or attrition-related differences were found. Little’s MCAR test (Little, 1988) was not significant, χ2(399) = 395, p = .54, suggesting that data were missing completely at random and that conditions were sufficient to use full information maximum likelihood (FIML) to approximate missing data in MPlus. Means, standard deviations, and intercorrelation of all study variables are represented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations

Variables M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
1. Child gender -- -- --
2. Maternal education, age 3 6.15 .85 .00 --
3. SES, age 3 54.35 10.94 −.06 .58** --
4. Family functioning, age 3 3.31 .47 −.03 .05 .17* --
5. Maternal mental health, age 3 3.71 .26 −.80 .05 .09 .50** --
6. Perceived social support, age 3 3.99 .71 −.03 .06 .05 .48** .59** --
7. Positive appraisals, age 3 4.23 .52 −.03 .04 .05 .41** .28** .34** --
8. Caregiving efficacy, age 3 4.31 .44 .05 .06 −.02 .24** .39** .35** .40** --
9. Warmth, age 3 .01 1.71 .08 .09 .04 .30** .20** .26** .35** .28** --
10. Physical punishment, age 3 .20 .30 .04 −.29** −.18** −.11 −.17* −.16* −.22** −.17** −.19**
11. Child empathy, age 6 5.46 .67 .32** .08 .05 .08 −.05 .07 .22** .10 .21** −.05
12. Compassion, age 19 4.33 .57 .30** .03 .61 .04 .10 .07 −.10 .00 .10 −.06 .27**
Open in a new tab

Note. For child gender, 0 = boy, 1 = girl.

*

p < .05,

**

p < .01

Preliminary analyses

Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations of key variables are presented in Table 1. At a bivariate level, being female was significantly associated with better child empathy at age 6 and higher levels of compassion at age 19. Child empathy was also correlated with some parenting behaviors (i.e., positive appraisals and warmth) and with compassionate concerns at age 19. Age 3 family functioning, maternal mental health, and perceived social support showed significant medium-level intercorrelations, suggesting that those measures could represent a single construct. Similarly, measures of parenting were significantly correlated with one another.

CFA of maternal resources.

Before conducting our SEM analysis, we conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine whether three measures of personal and systemic resources (i.e., family functioning, maternal mental health, perceived social support) could be loaded into one latent construct. Figure 1 showed a single latent construct of maternal resources, noting that all factor loadings were positively significant. Given the significant factor loadings and substantial correlations among the three measures, we decided to use the latent construct of maternal resources in subsequent analyses.

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Open in a new tab

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model indicating a single latent construct for maternal resources.

Note. Standardized beta scores are reported; ***p < .001; The model had a good fit: RMSEA = .00, CFI = .1, TLI = .1, SRMR = .00

CFA of positive parenting.

Similarly, we conducted CFA to test whether measures of parenting attitudes and behaviors (i.e., maternal reports of positive appraisals about child behavior, parenting efficacy, warmth, and physical punishment) could represent a single latent factor of positive parenting. As shown in Figure 2, all four measures were significantly loaded into a latent construct with a good model fit. Given the positive loadings with positive appraisal, warmth, and parenting efficacy, as well as negative loading with physical punishment, we decided to call this latent variable positive parenting and use it in subsequent analyses.

Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Open in a new tab

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) model indicating a single latent construct for positive parenting.

Note. Standardized beta scores are reported; ***p < .001, **p < .01; The model had a good fit: χ2 (2) = 1.95, p = .38, RMSEA = .00, CFI = .1, TLI = .1, SRMR = .029

CFA of compassionate concern for others

As shown in Figure 3, CFA indicated that all items could be loaded into a single factor of compassionate concern. All factor loadings were above .6 and were significant. Model fit indices indicated an acceptable fit.

Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Open in a new tab

Structural equation modeling (SEM) depicting the association among maternal resources, parenting quality at age 3, child empathy at age 6 and compassionate concerns for others at age 19.

Note. Standardized beta scores are reported; ***p < .001, **p < .01, *p < .05; Only significant pathways are presented in the figure. Significant mediation paths are indicated by weighted lines. The model had acceptable fit: RMSEA = .050, CFI = .937, TLI = .903, SRMR = .049.(Maternal education and SES at age 3 were included as covariates)

Main analyses: Structural equation modeling (SEM)

Figure 3 presents the results of the structural equation model to examine early pathways associated with compassion and kindness in emerging adulthood. Note that maternal education and SES were included as covariates in this final model. The model had a good fit, characterized by high CFI, acceptable TLI, and good RMSEA and SRMR.

Hypothesis1. Maternal resources and positive parenting at age 3 will be associated with child empathy at age 6. Furthermore, higher levels of maternal resources will be associated with better child empathy via higher levels of positive parenting.

The final SEM model evidenced a significant association between age 3 positive parenting and age 6 child empathy. Specifically, more positive parenting at age 3 was associated with higher levels of empathy at age 6. On the other hand, maternal resources at age 3 were not significantly predictive of child empathy three years later. The model indicated a significant indirect pathway from age 3 maternal resources to age 6 child empathy via age 3 positive parenting (beta estimate = .32, p = .009), such that higher levels of maternal resources were significantly associated with better quality of parenting, which in turn, predicted better child empathy three years later. In addition, being female was associated with higher levels of child empathy at age 6.

Hypothesis 2. Female gender and childhood levels of empathy will be associated with kindness and compassion in emerging adulthood.

SEM revealed that higher levels of child empathy reported by mothers at age 6 were associated with higher levels of self-reported compassion at age 19. In addition, being female was associated with higher levels of compassionate concern for others at age 19. The results were significant after accounting for covariates, such as maternal education and SES.

Hypothesis 3. Maternal resources and positive parenting at age 3 will be associated with compassionate concern at age 19 via child empathy at age 6.

Even though we found significant associations between age 3 positive parenting and age 6 empathy, as well as between age 6 empathy and age 19 compassionate concern, there was no support for a direct (β = −.32, p = .13) or indirect effect (beta estimate = .11, p = .12) from age 3 positive parenting to age 19 compassion. Similarly, the model evidenced an insignificant indirect pathway from age 3 maternal resources to age 19 compassion via age 6 empathy (beta estimate = −.06, p = .23), as well as via age 3 parenting and age 6 empathy (beta estimate = .08, p = .14). The direct association between age 3 maternal resources and age 19 compassion was marginally significant (β = .36, p = .07).

Discussion

Our central aim was to examine childhood precursors of compassionate concern for others in adulthood. Consistent with our developmental systems model, we focused on different predictive constructs in multiple domains, including childhood empathy, parenting, and broader environmental resources that parents experience. Overall, our results revealed direct and indirect pathways to childhood empathy and compassionate concern in adulthood.

One of the most important findings in our study was the significant indirect pathway from age 3 maternal resources to child empathy three years later via positive parenting. Consistent with our hypothesis, mothers with more resources and support were more likely to endorse positive and responsive parenting than others; in turn, positive parenting at age 3 was associated with higher levels of children’s empathic and prosocial responses three years later. The robust relationship between positive parenting and child empathy affirms earlier studies showing that warm and responsive parenting tends to promote children’s sense of connection to others and prosocial behaviors (Carlo et al., 2011). This finding adds additional support to the social learning theory of prosocial behaviors (Bandura, 1969), such that children, directly and indirectly, learn what behaviors are valued from their caregivers, who are the most important sources of social cues in early childhood (Eisenberg, VanSchyndel, et al., 2015). In addition, sensitive, responsive, non-coercive parenting tends to provide opportunities to discuss different perspectives and emotions of their own and others, which may promote the development of empathy. Indeed, studies of attachment and early socialization provide ample evidence that parents’ sensitive response to children’s distress predicts children’s empathy across multiple stages of development, by providing opportunities for children to internalize and imitate the empathic behaviors that their parents model (Stern & Cassidy, 2018). Moreover, the role of parenting in promoting prosocial behaviors might be especially important during early childhood when children start to understand the intentions and perspectives of others (Raboteg-Saric & Hoffman, 2001; Wellman et al., 2001).

In addition to parenting behaviors, the significant indirect pathway from maternal resources and child empathy via positive parenting highlights the role of ecological and personal resources available for caregivers in the development of child empathy. Specifically, our results showed that parents with better resources (e.g., social support, mental health, family cohesion) were more likely to endorse responsive, non-coercive parenting, which in turn predicted children’s empathy during the early school-age period. Indeed, it is well known that stresses and resources in the broader family system influence parent-child relationships, and in turn, later child adjustment (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2007; Chaplin et al., 2021; Sameroff, 2010). Our study examined this ecological perspective on child development in a more positive framework and found that resources in a broader family system were linked with children’s prosocial behaviors through their positive associations with supportive parenting. Thus, this finding highlights the importance of resources and support in broader family contexts that enable parenting practices that predict children’s empathy and compassionate attitudes toward others.

As expected, our results indicated several individual child characteristics in childhood that were associated with compassionate concern toward others in emerging adulthood. Specifically, girls and children with higher levels of empathy during childhood were more likely to endorse higher levels of compassion towards others in emerging adulthood. The significant association between childhood empathy and compassion in early adulthood adds additional support to a few prior studies showing the consistency of prosocial dispositions throughout development (Eisenberg et al., 2002). Even though the quality of children’s prosocial characteristics differs across development (Eisenberg, Spinrad, et al., 2015), our findings suggest that need-oriented prosocial behaviors from earlier years may serve as a building block for more sophisticated moral reasoning and affective perspective taking for others. Various developmental processes may explain this long-term stability of prosocial attitudes from our study. For example, prior literature revealed biological factors that may explain the consistency in prosocial responding over time, including the genetic and neural bases of empathy-related responding (e.g., Immordino-Yang et al., 2009; Knafo-Noam et al., 2015; Noriuchi et al., 2008) as well as temperament characteristics that are correlated with prosocial behaviors (Eisenberg et al., 1996). In addition to biological predispositions, environmental factors are likely to contribute to the development of prosocial behaviors from early childhood to emerging adulthood (Eisenberg, Spinrad et al., 2015; Gluschkoff et al., 2018; Josefsson et al., 2013; Sallquist et al., 2012). Specifically, given the significant association between social support and supportive parenting with child empathy in our study, it is possible that these early contextual precursors of prosocial behaviors may contribute to the early emergence of empathy, which continues to be stable throughout development and predicts compassionate attitudes in emerging adulthood. For example, prior empirical studies indicated parental discipline and care arrangement settings in early childhood were independently predictive of compassion and cooperativeness in adulthood (Gluschkoff et al., 2018; Josefsson et al., 2013).

Alternatively, the direct association from childhood empathy to later compassionate concern may reflect the stability of environmental factors rather than the stability of individual differences in prosocial development. For instance, it is possible that fewer family resources and suboptimal parenting may be persistent throughout children’s development, which may serve as a concurrent factor associated with relatively low levels of compassion toward others. In addition, given the age gap from childhood to emerging adulthood, various mediators, such as peer relationships in adolescence, may be plausible developmental mechanisms underlying associations between childhood empathy and later compassionate concern (Boele et al., 2019; Miklikowska et al., 2022). Therefore, future research, including measures of concurrent familial and broader environmental factors as well as potential mediators in the adolescent period would offer more precise explanations of these long-term developmental pathways.

In addition to levels of empathy in childhood, gender was a significant predictor of compassionate attitudes in emerging adulthood. Specifically, females showed higher levels of empathy in childhood and more compassionate concern in emerging adulthood than males. Our findings suggest consistent gender differences in empathy and prosocial behaviors across development, which aligns with prior empirical studies (Allemand et al., 2015; Eisenberg et al., 1998; López et al., 2018) and with stereotypic gender roles where females are generally expected and believed to be more empathetic and prosocial than males (Eisenberg et al., 2015; Zahn-Waxler et al., 2018). The gender difference in empathy may be attributable to girls’ higher sensitivity to emotional cues and better perspective-taking in childhood (Chakrabarti à & Baron-Cohen, 2006). Alternatively, given that the measure of childhood empathy in our study was the mother’s report, the gender difference in empathy may reflect parents’ subjective perceptions, regardless of how children actually behave (Eisenberg et al., 2015). That is, mothers of girls may have interpreted their child’s behaviors to be more prosocial than the mothers of boys. The consistent gender differences across 15 years highlight the importance of the early developmental period in prosociality. However, considering that females had higher levels of self-reported compassionate concern, even controlling for childhood empathy in our study, being female contributed in an additive way to compassionate concern in early adulthood.

Contrary to the hypothesis, we did not find a significant indirect pathway from early environmental resources to compassionate concern in early adulthood. This was surprising considering that there were significant direct associations between early environmental resources and child empathy, as well as between child empathy and compassion for others in emerging adulthood. The insignificant indirect pathway might be due to the relatively modest sample size of our study, especially in Wave 3 (N = 147), which may not be well-powered to identify the longitudinal mediation pathways. Alternatively, the insignificant longitudinal mediational pathway might reflect characteristics of our study sample, being relatively lower risk in terms of family and contextual adversities. Given prior research indicating significant associations between the number of childhood risk factors and adulthood cooperativeness (Josefsson et al., 2013), children of families who experience multiple environmental challenges will be more strongly and persistently affected than those in families with adequate or good resources. Future research with larger sample sizes and higher-risk samples would provide clearer explanations of these mechanisms of association.

Despite the longitudinal study design spanning early childhood to emerging adulthood as well as the inclusion of multiple risk/protective child and familial characteristics, our study had several limitations. First, our participants were primarily from two-parent, middle-class, European American families. Although this reflects the demographic characteristics of our moderately sized university town, the results of our study may not generalize to children of more diverse sociodemographic backgrounds or those with severe hardships. Second, although we successfully retained data from 64% of our participants in emerging adulthood, the modest size of the follow-up sample may have limited statistical power to detect some effects. Therefore, replication efforts with larger samples with participants from more diverse sociodemographic backgrounds are needed. Third, although our study provides valuable information on how early environmental and child characteristics may be associated with long-term individual differences in compassion, it is noteworthy that our results are based on correlational relationships and cannot assume causation. Fourth, although using multiple informants (i.e., mother and child) was a strength of this study, measures of childhood empathy relied on maternal reports and measures of later compassion on young adults’ self-reports. Although self- and parental reports of prosociality can efficiently provide valid information (Neumann et al., 2015), it is possible that parents’ subjective interpretations of their child’s behavior and concerns about social desirability among emerging adults may have partly affected their responses. Thus, it may be beneficial to incorporate other methods (e.g., observations) to measure empathy and compassionate concern in future studies. Fifth, although the results of our study emphasize the importance of positive parenting in predicting empathy in childhood, it should be noted that parenting behaviors may also be driven by child characteristics, such as early temperament or psychological symptoms. Relatedly, we acknowledge that parents may contribute to children’s empathy not only through parenting behaviors but also through their shared genetic characteristics with their children. Therefore, future studies that include reciprocal relationships between parenting behaviors and child characteristics and that use genetically informative dataset would be beneficial in examining unique contribution of positive parenting to child empathy and compassionate concerns for others.

In conclusion, we provided unique findings by linking longitudinal precursors of compassion towards others in emerging adulthood that integrated proximal parenting characteristics, distal qualities of maternal resources, and relevant child characteristics in the same model. Our findings highlight the importance of parenting behaviors and resources caregivers possess for the early development of empathy. In addition, our study provides hints for early attempts to promote compassionate concern for others, such as providing parenting support and encouraging empathy development in childhood.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (RO1MH57489) to the fourth author. We thank children, parents, and teachers for making this research possible.

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, SL, upon reasonable request.

Contributor Information

Sujin Lee, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.

Ka I Ip, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota.

Ramaswami Mahalingam, Ramaswami Mahalingam, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.

Sheryl L. Olson, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan

References

  1. Abidin RR (1983). Parenting Stress Index: Manual, Administration Booklet, and Research Update. Pediatric Psychology Press. [Google Scholar]
  2. Allemand M, Steiger AE, & Fend HA (2015). Empathy Development in Adolescence Predicts Social Competencies in Adulthood. Journal of Personality, 83(2), 229–241. 10.1111/jopy.12098 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Barkin SH, Miller L, & Luthar SS (2015). Filling the Void: Spiritual Development Among Adolescents of the Affluent. Journal of Religion and Health, 54(3), 844–861. 10.1007/s10943-015-0048-z [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bloom P (2017). Empathy and Its Discontents. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 21(1), 24–31. 10.1016/j.tics.2016.11.004 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Boele S, Van der Graaff J, de Wied M, Van der Valk IE, Crocetti E, & Branje S (2019). Linking Parent–Child and Peer Relationship Quality to Empathy in Adolescence: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48(6), 1033–1055. 10.1007/s10964-019-00993-5 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Bronfenbrenner U, & Morris PA (2007). The Bioecological Model of Human Development. In Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 1. Theoretical models of human development (pp. 793–828). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 10.1002/9780470147658.chpsy0114 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  7. Carlo G, Mestre MV, Samper P, Tur A, & Armenta BE (2011). The longitudinal relations among dimensions of parenting styles, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, and prosocial behaviors. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 35(2), 116–124. 10.1177/0165025410375921 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  8. Chakrabarti à B, & Baron-Cohen S (2006). Empathizing: neurocognitive developmental mechanisms and individual differences. Progress in Brain Research, 156, 403–416. 10.1016/S0079-6123(06)56022-4 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Chaplin TM, Turpyn CC, Fischer S, Martelli AM, Ross CE, Leichtweis RN, Miller AB, & Sinha R (2021). Parenting-Focused Mindfulness Intervention Reduces Stress and Improves Parenting in Highly Stressed Mothers of Adolescents. Mindfulness, 12(2), 450–462. 10.1007/s12671-018-1026-9 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Cosley BJ, McCoy SK, Saslow LR, & Epel ES (2010). Is compassion for others stress buffering? Consequences of compassion and social support for physiological reactivity to stress. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(5), 816–823. 10.1016/j.jesp.2010.04.008 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  11. Cox MJ, Mills-Koonce R, Propper C, & Gariépy JL (2010). Systems theory and cascades in developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 22(3), 497–506. 10.1017/S0954579410000234 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Derogatis LR, & Melisaratos N (1983). The Brief Symptom Inventory: An Introductory Report. Psychological Medicine, 13(3), 595–605. 10.1017/S0033291700048017 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Dodge KA, Pettit GS, & Bates JE (1994). Socialization Mediators of the Relation between Socioeconomic Status and Child Conduct Problems. Source: Child Development, 65(2), 649–665. [Google Scholar]
  14. Eisenberg N, Cumberland A, & Spinrad TL (1998). Parental Socialization of Emotion. 9(4), 241–273. [Google Scholar]
  15. Eisenberg N, Fabes RA, Murphy B, Karbon M, Smith M, & Maszk P (1996). The relations of children’s dispositional empathy-related responding to their emotionality, regulation, and social functioning. Developmental Psychology, 32(2), 195–209. 10.1037/0012-1649.32.2.195 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  16. Eisenberg N, Guthrie IK, Cumberland A, Murphy BC, Shepard SA, Zhou Q, & Carlo G (2002). Prosocial development in early adulthood: A longitudinal study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 993–1006. 10.1037/0022-3514.82.6.993 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Eisenberg N, Spinrad TL, & Knafo-Noam A (2015). Prosocial Development. In Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science (pp. 1–47). John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 10.1002/9781118963418.CHILDPSY315 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  18. Eisenberg N, VanSchyndel SK, & Hofer C (2015). The association of maternal socialization in childhood and adolescence with adult offsprings’ sympathy/caring. Developmental Psychology, 51(1), 7–16. 10.1037/a0038137 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Epstein NB, Baldwin LM, & Bishop DS (1983). The McMaster Family Assessment Device. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 9(2), 171–180. 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1983.tb01497.x [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  20. Feindler EL, Rathus JH, & Silver LB (2003). Assessment of family violence: A handbook for researchers and practitioners. American Psychological Association. 10.1037/10462-000 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  21. Gershoff ET, & Grogan-Kaylor A (2016). Spanking and child outcomes: Old controversies and new meta-analyses. Journal of Family Psychology, 30(4), 453–469. 10.1037/fam0000191 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  22. Gilbert P (2017). Compassion: Definitions and controversies. In Gilbert P (Ed.), Compassion: Concepts, research and applications (pp. 3–15). London: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
  23. Gluschkoff K, Oksman E, Knafo-Noam A, Dobewall H, Hintsa T, Keltikangas-Järvinen L, & Hintsanen M (2018). The early roots of compassion: From child care arrangements to dispositional compassion in adulthood. Personality and Individual Differences, 129, 28–32. 10.1016/J.PAID.2018.03.005 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  24. Goetz JL, Keltner D, & Simon-Thomas E (2010). Compassion: An evolutionary analysis and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 136(3), 351–374. 10.1037/a0018807 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  25. Immordino-Yang MH, McColl A, Damasio H, & Damasio A (2009). Neural correlates of admiration and compassion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(19), 8021–8026. 10.1073/pnas.0810363106 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. Josefsson K, Jokela M, Hintsanen M, Robert Cloninger C, Pulkki-Råback L, Merjonen P, Hutri-Kähönen N, & Keltikangas-Järvinen L (2013). Parental care-giving and home environment predicting offspring’s temperament and character traits after 18 years. Psychiatry Research, 209(3), 643–651. 10.1016/j.psychres.2013.01.007 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  27. Kerr DCR, Lopez NL, Olson SL, & Sameroff AJ (2004). Parental Discipline and Externalizing Behavior Problems in Early Childhood: The Roles of Moral Regulation and Child Gender. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 32(4), 369–383. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Kline RB (2004). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. Guilford. [Google Scholar]
  29. Knafo-Noam A, Uzefovsky F, Israel S, Davidov M, & Zahn-Waxler C (2015). The prosocial personality and its facets: Genetic and environmental architecture of mother-reported behavior of 7-year-old twins. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1–9. 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00112 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  30. Kochanska G, DeVet K, Goldman M, Murray K, & Putnam SP (1994). Maternal Reports of Conscience Development and Temperament in Young Children. Child Development, 65(3), 852–868. 10.2307/1131423 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Kochanska G, Koenig JL, Barry RA, Kim S, & Yoon JE (2010). Children’s conscience during toddler and preschool years, moral self, and a competent, adaptive developmental trajectory. Developmental Psychology, 46(5), 1320–1332. 10.1037/a0020381 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  32. Koestner R, Franz C, & Weinberger J (1990). The Family Origins of Empathic Concern: A 26-Year Longitudinal Study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58(4), 709–717. 10.1037/0022-3514.58.4.709 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Lansford JE (2019). Parental Discipline Practices Associated With Preventing Children’s Aggressive and Immoral Behavior. In Laible DJ, Carlo G, & Padilla-Walker LM (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Parenting and Moral Development (pp. 338–354). Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190638696.013.23 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  34. Lee S, Bernstein R, Ip KI, & Olson SL (2024). Developmental cascade models linking contextual risks, parenting, and internalizing symptoms: A 17-year longitudinal study from early childhood to emerging adulthood. Development and Psychopathology, 1–17. 10.1017/S0954579422001043 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  35. Lim D, & DeSteno D (2016). Suffering and compassion: The links among adverse life experiences, empathy, compassion, and prosocial behavior. Emotion, 16(2), 175–182. 10.1037/emo0000144 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. López A, Sanderman R, Ranchor AV, & Schroevers MJ (2018). Compassion for Others and Self-Compassion: Levels, Correlates, and Relationship with Psychological Well-being. Mindfulness, 9(1), 325–331. 10.1007/s12671-017-0777-z [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  37. Mahalingam R (2019). Mindful Mindset, Interconnectedness and Dignity. Youth and Globalization, 1(2), 230–253. 10.1163/25895745-00102003 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  38. Miklikowska M, Tilton-Weaver L, & Burk WJ (2022). With a Little Help From My Empathic Friends: The Role of Peers in the Development of Empathy in Adolescence. Developmental Psychology, 58(6), 1156–1162. 10.1037/dev0001347 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  39. Mills-Koonce WR, Willoughby MT, Garrett-Peters P, Wagner N, & Vernon-Feagans L (2016). The interplay among socioeconomic status, household chaos, and parenting in the prediction of child conduct problems and callous-unemotional behaviors. Development and Psychopathology, 28(3), 757–771. 10.1017/S0954579416000298 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  40. Neumann DL, Chan RCK, Boyle GJ, Wang Y, & Rae Westbury H (2015). Measures of Empathy. In Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs (Issue 1969, pp. 257–289). Elsevier. 10.1016/B978-0-12-386915-9.00010-3 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  41. Noriuchi M, Kikuchi Y, & Senoo A (2008). The Functional Neuroanatomy of Maternal Love: Mother’s Response to Infant’s Attachment Behaviors. Biological Psychiatry, 63(4), 415–423. 10.1016/j.biopsych.2007.05.018 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  42. Olson SL, Bates JE, & Bayles K (1982). Maternal perceptions of infant and toddler behavior: A longitudinal, construct validation study. Infant Behavior and Development, 5, 397–410. 10.1016/S0163-6383(82)80049-0 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  43. Olson SL, Sameroff AJ, Kerr DC, Lopez NL, & Wellman HM (2005). Developmental foundations of externalizing problems in young children: The role of effortful control. Development and Psychopathology, 17, 2545. 10.1017/s0954579405050029 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  44. Power T. (1993). Parenting dimensions inventory (PDI): A research manual. University of Houston. [Google Scholar]
  45. Raboteg-Saric Z, & Hoffman ML (2001). Empathy and Moral Development: Implications for Caring and Justice. Contemporary Sociology, 30(5), 487. 10.2307/3089337 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  46. Roeser RW, Colaianne BA, & Greenberg MA (2018). Compassion and Human Development: Current Approaches and Future Directions. Research in Human Development, 15, 238–251. 10.1080/15427609.2018.1495002 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  47. Roeser RW, & Eccles JS (2015). Mindfulness and compassion in human development: Introduction to the special section. Developmental Psychology, 51(1), 1–6. 10.1037/a0038453 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  48. Roubinov DS, & Boyce WT (2017). Parenting and SES: relative values or enduring principles? In Current Opinion in Psychology (Vol. 15, pp. 162–167). Elsevier. 10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.03.001 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  49. Sallquist J, DiDonato MD, Hanish LD, Martin CL, & Fabes RA (2012). The importance of mutual positive expressivity in social adjustment: Understanding the role of peers and gender. Emotion, 12(2), 304–313. 10.1037/a0025238 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  50. Sameroff A (2010). A unified theory of development: A dialectic integration of nature and nurture. Child Development, 81(1), 6–22. 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01378.x [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  51. Sameroff AJ (2020). It’s More Complicated. Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, 2(1), 1–26. 10.1146/annurev-devpsych-061520-120738 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  52. Spinrad TL, & Eisenberg N (2017). Compassion in children. In Seppala EM, Simon-Thomas E, Brown SL, Worline MC, Cameron CD, & Doty JR (Eds.), The oxford handbook of compassion science (pp. 53–63). Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]
  53. Spinrad TL, & Eisenberg N (2019). Socialization of Moral Emotions and Behavior. In Laible DJ, Carlo G, & Padilla-Walker LM (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Parenting and Moral Development (pp. 56–72). Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190638696.013.7 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  54. Strauss C, Lever Taylor B, Gu J, Kuyken W, Baer R, Jones F, & Cavanagh K (2016). What is compassion and how can we measure it? A review of definitions and measures. Clinical Psychology Review, 47, 15–27. 10.1016/j.cpr.2016.05.004 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  55. Wellman HM, Cross D, & Watson J (2001). Meta-analysis of theory-of-mind development: The truth about false belief. Child Development, 72(3), 655–684. 10.1111/1467-8624.00304 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  56. Weng HY, Fox AS, Shackman AJ, Stodola DE, Caldwell JZK, Olson MC, Rogers GM, & Davidson RJ (2013). Compassion training alters altruism and neural responses to suffering. Psychological Science, 24(7), 1171–1180. 10.1177/0956797612469537 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  57. Zahn-Waxler C, Schoen A, & Decety J (2018). An interdisciplinary perspective on the origins of concern for others: Contributions from psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, and sociobiology. In Forms of Fellow Feeling: Empathy, Sympathy, Concern and Moral Agency (pp. 184–215). Cambridge University Press. 10.1017/9781316271698.008 [DOI] [Google Scholar]

RESOURCES