(PS7-71) Examining the Origins of Individual Differences in Prosocial Behaviors and Empathy During Toddlerhood

Abstract Text: The emergence of prosocial behavior and empathy during the second year of life forms a strong foundation for a child’s future moral and socioemotional development (Eisenberg et al., 1999). Toddlers vary in prosociality—while some may engage in helping, sharing, and comforting frequently, others do so less often. Both theoretical (Eisenberg, 2005) and empirical work (Wagers & Kiel, 2019; Young et al., 1999) suggest that individual differences in temperament and empathy contribute to explaining variability in early prosocial behaviors. However, prior research has often examined these two factors in isolation from each other (Williams et al., 2014), defined prosociality broadly (Willis, 2015) or focused on one type of prosocial behavior at a time (Bohns & Flynn, 2021). Moreover, most of the research on empathy and prosocial behaviors in toddlerhood has been concurrent (Williams et al., 2014), limiting our understanding of whether empathy influences prosociality, or vice versa (or bidirectionally). This study addresses these gaps by examining longitudinal associations between empathy, temperament dimensions (effortful control, negative affect and surgency), and prosocial behaviors (comforting, sharing and helping) among toddlers over a three-month time period.

The sample included 333 mothers of toddlers aged 18 months (Mage = 18.30 months, SD = 0.45) and 24 months (Mage = 24.29 months, SD = 0.38). Parents completed a series of online questionnaires measuring their child’s empathy, temperament, and prosocial behaviors. Four multiple regression analyses were run, with each type of prosocial behavior or empathy serving as a dependent variable. In each analysis, Time-1 sharing, helping, caring, empathy, and three temperament dimensions were treated as predictors. We also controlled for gender, age, and ethnicity. We found that that both empathy (β = .18, p < .001) and surgency (β = .11, p < .05) significantly predicted comforting at Time 2. None of the focal effects were significant when predicting Time-2 sharing and helping. For Time-2 empathy, effortful control significantly predicted empathy (β = .15, p < .001). None of the prosocial behaviors were significant when predicting Time 2 empathy.

These findings highlight the importance of using an integrated approach in the pursuit of understanding the early origins of individual differences in prosocial behaviors and empathy. Our results also suggest that interventions to promote prosocial development in toddlers should view prosociality as a multidimensional construct. For instance, targeting empathy could be effective in fostering comforting behaviors, but it might fail to promote other forms of prosocial behaviors. However, for prevention and intervention efforts to be successful, we still need a better understanding of distinct processes underlying comforting, helping, and sharing. This is a critical area of research awaiting further evaluation.