About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 13. Moral Development

Abstract

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Background. Empathy has been typically studied as a multifaceted construct consisting of emotional and cognitive aspects. Recent research suggested that beyond overall levels of empathy the (im)balance between empathy components, empathic disequilibrium, predicts various clinical conditions in adults, including autism, anxiety, and psychopathy. It is unclear how empathic disequilibrium develops and how it relates to psychopathologies in children.
Methods. Participants were parents of N=303, 3-12 year-old children. Parents reported on their children's emotional and cognitive empathy, behavioral symptoms, and callous-unemotional traits. Empathic disequilibrium was calculated as the difference between emotional and cognitive empathy scores.
Results. Empathic disequilibrium toward emotional empathy is typical at earlier ages and declines over time, the rate of decrease attenuates at later ages. The association between age and empathic disequilibrium was strongest for children with low levels of conduct problems. While there was only a direct association between empathic disequilibrium and the other symptoms (no interaction with age), children with low levels of emotional problems and callous-unemotional traits as well as those higher in prosocial behavior reached equilibrium at an earlier age.
Conclusions. The study shows that disequilibrium towards emotional empathy may be typical in early childhood. Children with various behavioral problems may show a different pattern of empathic disequilibrium. This can be significant in reconceptualizing the relationship between empathy and psychopathology.

Author information

Author	Role
Florina Uzefovsky, Ph.D., Ben-Gurion University of the Negev	Presenting author
Ido Shalev, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev	Non-presenting author
Rebecca Waller, University of Pennsylvania	Non-presenting author
Nicholas Wagner, Boston University	Non-presenting author

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