Department of Psychiatry, Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, University Medical Center Utrecht.
Department of Developmental Psychology, Utrecht University.
Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2018;88(3):346-353. doi: 10.1037/ort0000319. Epub 2018 Feb 22.
The course of proactive aggressive behavior may be affected by empathy in response to sadness and distress of others. The aim of the current study is to examine empathy in response to sadness and distress and its relation to proactive and reactive aggression in a clinical sample of children with externalizing behavior problems. At baseline (T1) and 12 months later (T2), parents and teachers of 104 six- and seven-year-old children completed the Instrument for Reactive and Proactive Aggression. At T1, parents and teachers also reported empathy in response to sadness and distress on the Griffith Empathy Measure. Findings show that low levels of parent-reported empathy at baseline were specifically associated with high parent-reported proactive aggression but not with reactive aggression. Similarly, low teacher-reported empathy was specifically related to high teacher-reported proactive aggression. Furthermore, high parent-reported but not teacher-reported empathy at baseline was associated with low proactive aggression at 12 months after controlling for proactive aggression at baseline. The conclusions support the notion that in the study of the course of aggression in clinical groups, the distinction between proactive and reactive aggression as well as the study of empathy in response to distress is relevant for a better understanding and might be taken into account in the development of future interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record
主动攻击行为的过程可能会受到对他人悲伤和痛苦的同理心的影响。本研究的目的是在具有外化行为问题的临床儿童样本中，检查对悲伤和痛苦的同理心及其与主动和反应性攻击的关系。在基线（T1）和 12 个月后（T2），104 名 6 至 7 岁儿童的父母和教师完成了反应性和主动性攻击性量表。在 T1 时，父母和教师还使用 Griffith 同理心量表报告了对悲伤和痛苦的同理心。研究结果表明，基线时父母报告的同理心水平低与父母报告的主动攻击性高有关，但与反应性攻击性无关。同样，教师报告的同理心水平低与教师报告的主动攻击性高有关。此外，在控制基线时的主动攻击性后，高父母报告但低教师报告的同理心与 12 个月后的低主动攻击性有关。结论支持了这样一种观点，即在临床群体攻击过程的研究中，主动和反应性攻击的区别以及对痛苦的同理心的研究对于更好地理解是相关的，并且可能会在未来干预措施的制定中加以考虑。
