Associations between empathy-related processes and prosocial behaviours in toddlerhood

This study examined the role of other-oriented empathy and personal distress in prosocial behaviours (sharing, helping, and comforting) during the second year of life. Participants were 200 mothers (Mage = 31.02 years) of toddlers aged 15–21 months (51% girl; Mage = 18.32 months, SD = 1.75) who completed parent-report measures of other-oriented empathy and personal distress, as well as helping, sharing, and comforting. We found that other-oriented empathy was positively associated with helping, sharing, and comforting, while personal distress did not have a significant effect on any of the prosocial behaviours. Moreover, when controlling for overlap among the three prosocial behaviours, other-oriented empathy was a unique positive predictor of comforting, with no significant effect on the two other prosocial behaviours. These findings underscore the importance of distinguishing between self-personal distress and other-oriented empathy, as well as different types of prosocial behaviours when studying associations between early empathy-related processes and prosocial behaviours.