Department of Psychology, University of Calgary.
Owerko Centre and Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Hotchkiss Brain Institute.
J Pediatr Psychol. 2021 Mar 18;46(3):314-323. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsaa107.
Empathy for pain allows one to recognize, understand, and respond to another person's pain in a prosocial manner. Young children develop empathy for pain later than empathy for other negative emotions (e.g., sadness), which may be due to social learning. How parents reminisce with children about past painful events has been linked to children's pain cognitions (e.g., memory) and broader socioemotional development. The present study examined how parent-child reminiscing about pain may be linked to children's empathic behaviors toward another person's pain.
One hundred and fourteen 4-year-old children (55% girls) and for each, one parent (51% fathers) completed a structured narrative elicitation task wherein they reminisced about a past painful autobiographical event for the child. Children were then observed responding in a lab-based empathy task wherein they witnessed a confederate pretending to hurt themselves. Children's empathic behaviors and parent-child narratives about past painful events were coded using established coding schemes.
Findings revealed that parents who used more neutral emotion language (e.g., How did you feel?) when discussing past painful events had children who exhibited more empathic concern in response to another's pain. Similarly, children who used more explanations when reminiscing about past painful events displayed more empathic concern about another's pain.
Findings highlight a key role of parent-child reminiscing about the past pain in the behavioral expression of empathy for pain in young children.
对疼痛的同理心使人们能够以亲社会的方式识别、理解和回应他人的疼痛。与同理心等其他负面情绪（如悲伤）相比，年幼的孩子发展同理心的时间较晚，这可能是由于社会学习。父母与孩子一起回忆过去的痛苦事件与孩子的疼痛认知（例如记忆）和更广泛的社会情感发展有关。本研究探讨了父母与孩子一起回忆疼痛事件如何与孩子对他人疼痛的同理心行为相关。
114 名 4 岁儿童（55%为女孩）及其每位父母（51%为父亲）完成了一项结构化的叙事引出任务，在该任务中，他们为孩子回忆过去的痛苦自传事件。然后，孩子们在一个基于实验室的同理心任务中观察到一个同谋假装伤害自己。使用既定的编码方案对孩子的同理心行为和父母与孩子关于过去痛苦事件的叙述进行编码。
研究结果表明，当讨论过去的痛苦事件时，使用更多中性情绪语言（例如，你感觉如何？）的父母，其孩子在对他人的痛苦做出反应时表现出更多的同理心关怀。同样，在回忆过去痛苦事件时使用更多解释的孩子，对他人的痛苦表现出更多的同理心关怀。
研究结果强调了父母与孩子一起回忆过去痛苦事件在年幼孩子对疼痛的同理心行为表达中的关键作用。
