Safe Research

I read a research paper called The Family Origins of Empathic Concern, which was a 26-year Longitudinal study.   Subjects of this study were 5 year olds.  Their mothers were interviewed about their parenting behavior and those of their spouses.  These interviews were transcribed and then rated for a variety of specific maternal and paternal behaviors.  The analysis of maternal styles yielded 6 dimensions, warmth, strictness, restricts sexuality, inhibits aggression, tolerates dependency and role satisfaction.  There was also an analysis of mother’s management techniques, use of physical punishment and use of praise.  The analysis of paternal ratings yielded  3 dimensions, involvement in child care, firmness in discipline and warmth (Koestner, Weinberger & Franz, 1990).  There were 379 subjects followed. 

This paper’s hypothesis was that the development of empathy is most likely to occur in a family environment that satisfies the child’s own emotional needs and discourages excessive self-concern, encourages the child to experience and express a broad range of emotions and provides opportunities for the child to observe and interact with others who encourage emotional sensitivity and responsiveness.  The 379 subjects were followed through surveys,  interviews and personality tests.

The results indicated that there is a relatively strong association between early parenting experiences and adult empathic concern.  It was found that children whose fathers were very involved in their care and whose mothers were tolerant of dependency were most likely to report high levels of empathic concern at age 31 (Koestner, Weinberger & Franz, 1990).  Parental affection was excluded as a predictor of a child’s development of empathy.  The results suggest that parenting behaviors in early childhood can have a lasting impact on the course of personality development.  This study is important because it shows the importance of family on child development.  The results of this study can be impacting on parenting techniques and what parents can learn about being a source to their child’s development.   This type of research seems not to propose greater than minimal risk to the participants as their parents were the ones interviewed and they were interviewed and or tested during a 26 year long period and the benefits of this research is extremely impacting the early childhood field.

Reference:

Koestner, R., Weinberger & Franz, C. (1990).  The Family Origins of Empathic Concern:  A 26 year Longitudinal Study The American Psychological Association Vol. 58, No 4 709-717

Reasons for my Topic

My topic for my simulation is empathy.  The questions I would like to answer is when does empathy present itself in young children and Is prosocial behavior inherent or is it learned from older children and adults.  This topic is important to me because prosocial behavior in children is the foundation to their learning.  If children are unable to cooperate and trust the people they are around learning is impossible. 

I would like to know when children are capable of empathy and or prosocial behavior  and if it is inherent or something that must be cultivated in a child.  As an early head start teacher I work with very young children and behavior is a major issue in the classroom.   I would like to have realistic expectations of the children in my class and this information would be helpful to me.  It is my position if prosocial behavior has to be cultivated, I would like to know this so that I can work on helping children to learn prosocial behavior.  Knowing the age sets my expectations.  I have read in a previous course that children begin to exhibit empathy at the age of  4 years old, but read a research paper that found that 18 month olds exhibit empathy.  The research document also examined monkeys and they too are capable to altruistic behavior.  I personally have witnessed very young children exhibit behavior that I would consider empathetic.   I would like clarity as to when I could have expectations of a child being capable to prosocial behavior/empathy.

I think obtaining knowledge in this area would be beneficial to Early Childhood field because it would  shed light on how children learn and develop, which is key to knowing how to teach them.