Empathy and moral development in adolescence.

The relationship between empathy and two measures of moral development (prosocial moral reasoning and helping) and parental socialization practices was examined using a sample of 72 ninth, eleventh, and twelfth graders. Empathy was significantly related to moral reasoning for both sexes and to helping for males. Maternal child-rearing practices were related to sons' empathy; mothers of highly empathic boys were nonpunitive, nonrestrictive, egalitarian, encouraged their offspring to discuss their problems, and set high standards for their sons. Females' empathy was not associated with parental socialization practices, perhaps due to a ceiling effect. While the relationship between children's cognitive role-taking abilities (understanding the perspectives of others) and level of moral development has been well established, the role of affective role taking or empathy (matching one's own feelings with the corresponding feelings of someone else) is less clear. Yet it is entirely reasonable to hypothesize that affective role-taking ability is a significant antecedent of helping behavior and of level of moral judgment. Data bearing on the problem are limited and not entirely consistent, however; some investigators have found positive relationships between measures of empathy and helping among adults (Mehrabian & Epstein, 1972), but children's empathy has not been consistently related to either moral judgment or generosity (Fay, 1970).