TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2015//
TI  - Predicting sympathy and prosocial behavior from young children's dispositional sadness
JO  - Social Development
A1  - Edwards, Alison
A1  - Eisenberg, Nancy
A1  - Spinrad, Tracy L.
A1  - Reiser, Mark
A1  - Eggum-Wilkens, Natalie D.
A1  - Liew, Jeffrey
SP  - 76
EP  - 94
VL  - 24
IS  - 1
N2  - The purpose of this study was to examine whether dispositional sadness predicted children's prosocial behavior and if sympathy mediated this relation. Constructs were measured when children (N = 256 at Time 1) were 18-, 30-, and 42-months old. Mothers and non-parental caregivers rated children's sadness; mothers, caregivers, and fathers rated children's prosocial behavior; sympathy (concern and hypothesis testing) and prosocial behavior (indirect and direct, as well as verbal at older ages) were assessed with a task in which the experimenter feigned injury. In a panel path analysis, 30-month dispositional sadness predicted marginally higher 42-month sympathy; in addition, 30-month sympathy predicted 42-month sadness. Moreover, when controlling for prior levels of prosocial behavior, 30-month sympathy significantly predicted reported and observed prosocial behavior at 42 months. Sympathy did not mediate the relation between sadness and prosocial behavior (either reported or observed).<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0961-205X
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sode.12084
ID  - ref1
ER  -