van Zonneveld Lisette, Platje Evelien, de Sonneville Leo, van Goozen Stephanie, Swaab Hanna
Department of Clinical Child and Adolescent Studies, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition, Leiden, The Netherlands.
J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2017 Aug;58(8):913-921. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12724. Epub 2017 Apr 11.
Empathy deficits are hypothesized to underlie impairments in social interaction exhibited by those who engage in antisocial behaviour. Social attention is an essential precursor to empathy; however, no studies have yet examined social attention in relation to cognitive and affective empathy in those exhibiting antisocial behaviour.
Participants were 8- to 12-year-old children at high risk of developing criminal behaviour (N = 114, 80.7% boys) and typically developing controls (N = 43, 72.1% boys). The high-risk children were recruited through an ongoing early identification and intervention project of the city of Amsterdam, focusing on the underage siblings or children of delinquents and those failing primary school. Video clips with neutral and emotional content (fear, happiness and pain) were shown, while heart rate (HR), skin conductance level (SCL) and skin conductance responses (SCRs) were recorded to measure affective empathy. Answers to questions about emotions in the clips were coded to measure cognitive empathy. Eye-tracking was used to evaluate visual scanning patterns towards social relevant cues (eyes and face) in the clips.
The high-risk group did not differ from the control group in social attention and cognitive empathy, but showed reduced HR to pain and fear, and reduced SCL and SCRs to pain.
Children at high risk of developing criminal behaviour show impaired affective empathy but unimpaired social attention and cognitive empathy. The implications for early identification and intervention studies with antisocial children are discussed.
共情缺陷被认为是反社会行为者社交互动受损的潜在原因。社会关注是共情的重要前提；然而，尚无研究考察反社会行为者的社会关注与认知共情和情感共情之间的关系。
参与者为有犯罪行为高风险的8至12岁儿童（N = 114，80.7%为男孩）和发育正常的对照组儿童（N = 43，72.1%为男孩）。高风险儿童通过阿姆斯特丹市正在进行的早期识别和干预项目招募而来，该项目聚焦于未成年兄弟姐妹或罪犯子女以及小学成绩不及格的儿童。播放带有中性和情感内容（恐惧、快乐和痛苦）的视频片段，同时记录心率（HR）、皮肤电导水平（SCL）和皮肤电导反应（SCR）以测量情感共情。对视频片段中关于情绪问题的回答进行编码以测量认知共情。使用眼动追踪技术评估对视频片段中社会相关线索（眼睛和面部）的视觉扫描模式。
高风险组在社会关注和认知共情方面与对照组没有差异，但对痛苦和恐惧的心率降低，对痛苦的皮肤电导水平和皮肤电导反应降低。
有犯罪行为高风险的儿童表现出情感共情受损，但社会关注和认知共情未受损。讨论了对反社会儿童早期识别和干预研究的意义。
