Empathy research has historically focused on children’s responses to others’ distress, leaving the development of positive empathy—the ability to share in another's joy—relatively under-explored. This study investigated whether children’s emotional responses to another’s positive experience are associated with their levels of trait empathy. Children ages 6–12 years ( N = 81; 37 girls, 44 boys; racially and ethnically diverse, including White, Multiethnic, East Asian, South Asian, Latin American, Black, and Arab/West Asian backgrounds) were recruited from a large North American city and viewed a video stimulus of infant laughter. Emotional responses were assessed using two methods: objective analysis of facial expressions via an automated Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and subjective self-reports. Parents assessed children’s trait empathy using the Griffith Empathy Measure (GEM). Results indicated that children exhibited significant increases in positive facial expressions and self-reported happiness in response to the video. Notably, automated FACS scores for positive facial expressions were significantly positively correlated with trait empathy ( r =.37), whereas negative expressions were negatively correlated ( r = -.34). Hierarchical multiple regression showed that objective facial expressions significantly predicted trait empathy even after controlling for age, gender, and baseline emotions. Conversely, children’s self-reported emotions were neither correlated with nor predictive of trait empathy. These findings suggest that objectively measured facial expressions in response to joy are a robust predictor of stable personality features like trait empathy in children. The study underscores the importance of positive empathy in childhood development.
Yao et al. (Wed,) studied this question.