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The role of emotion regulation in situational empathy‐related responding and prosocial behaviour in the presence of negative affect
Author(s) -
Hein Sascha,
Röder Mandy,
Fingerle Michael
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
international journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.75
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 1464-066X
pISSN - 0020-7594
DOI - 10.1002/ijop.12405
Subject(s) - prosocial behavior , psychology , situational ethics , empathy , affect (linguistics) , social psychology , affect regulation , developmental psychology , communication , attachment theory
Empathy and prosocial behaviour are crucial factors for children's positive social adjustment. Contemporary models of empathy highlight the capacity to regulate vicariously experienced emotions as a precursor to empathy‐related responses (e.g., prosocial behaviour). The goal of this study was to examine the role of emotion regulation (ER) in situational empathy‐related responding and prosocial behaviour. A sample of 157 children (76 boys and 81 girls; M age = 9.94 years) participated in a two‐tiered interview procedure that utilised vignettes to assess empathy and prosocial behaviour. Between both phases of the interview, a negative affect was induced to investigate the influence of ER on the change between the two phases. Results from a latent change model showed that ER strategies positively predicted change scores, that is, children with higher abilities to regulate emotions showed a higher increase in empathy and prosocial behaviour. Implications for the promotion of social‐emotional learning in school are discussed.