Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2021 Sep;209:105154. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105154. Epub 2021 Jun 1.
Although shyness has been found to be a concurrent constraint on young children's empathy and instrumental helping, there is limited evidence to suggest that this temperamental profile has longitudinal effects on prosocial behaviors. Here, we examined the concurrent and longitudinal relations between children's shyness and prosocial behaviors, as well as the intervening impact of instrumental helping behavior on later empathic response in typically developing children (N = 86; 45 female). Shyness was coded from direct observations and reported by parents at Time 1 (M = 54.3 months, SD = 2.9), Time 2 (M = 66.5 months, SD = 2.8), and Time 3 (M = 77.9 months, SD = 2.8), helping behavior was assessed at Time 2, and data on cognitive and affective empathy were collected at Time 3. Increases in shyness resulted in longitudinal reductions of affective empathy but not cognitive empathy or instrumental helping. As well, Time 2 helping behavior mediated the relation between Time 1 shyness and Time 3 affective empathy and, to some extent, the relation between Time 2 shyness and Time 3 affective empathy. These findings suggest that shyness concurrently impedes early helping behaviors, and that this withdrawal may contribute to reductions in shy children's prosocial learning opportunities that inform later empathic responses.
虽然害羞已被发现是儿童同理心和工具性帮助的并发限制因素，但几乎没有证据表明这种气质特征对亲社会行为具有纵向影响。在这里，我们检查了儿童害羞和亲社会行为之间的并发和纵向关系，以及工具性帮助行为对典型发展儿童（N=86；女性 45 名）以后同理心反应的干预影响。害羞是通过直接观察和父母在第 1 次（M=54.3 个月，SD=2.9）、第 2 次（M=66.5 个月，SD=2.8）和第 3 次（M=77.9 个月，SD=2.8）时的报告进行编码的，帮助行为是在第 2 次评估的，认知和情感同理心的数据是在第 3 次收集的。害羞程度的增加导致纵向同理心的情感成分降低，但认知同理心或工具性帮助行为没有降低。此外，第 2 次帮助行为中介了第 1 次害羞与第 3 次情感同理心之间的关系，在一定程度上也中介了第 2 次害羞与第 3 次情感同理心之间的关系。这些发现表明，害羞会同时阻碍儿童早期的帮助行为，而这种退缩可能会减少害羞儿童亲社会学习的机会，从而影响他们以后的同理心反应。
