Children's empathy moderates the association between perceived interparental conflict and child health.
Children's empathy moderates the association between perceived interparental conflict and child health.
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儿童的同理心调节了感知到的父母间冲突与儿童健康之间的关联。
DOI：
10.1016/j.bbi.2024.02.022
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发表时间：
2024
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Graham-Engeland,Jennifer
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Schreier,HannahMC;Feinberg,MarkE;Jones,DamonE;Ganguli,Aishwarya;Givens,Caitlin;Graham-Engeland,Jennifer
众所周知，父母间的冲突会对儿童的福祉产生负面影响，包括行为和生理福祉。儿童的同理心-即间接体验他人的情绪-可能会增加儿童对父母间冲突的敏感性和生物学影响。虽然同情心是一种有价值的特质，是社会情感发展的重要组成部分，但它对儿童身体健康的影响尚不清楚。这项研究以7至9岁儿童为样本，考察了同理心是否会调节感知到的父母间冲突与儿童全身炎症和父母评价的儿童整体健康之间的关联。参与家庭基金会计划长期评估的儿童及其父母，这是一项围产期预防性干预的随机试验，他们在参加该计划后约8年提供了数据。我们收集外周血样本，通过干血斑，人体测量，儿童和父母的心理社会问卷。结果表明，儿童移情对C-反应蛋白（CRP; B = 0.26，SE = 0.11，p = 0.026）和白细胞介素-6（IL-6; B = 0.20，SE = 0.10，p = 0.045）水平都有显著的正主效应。此外，儿童情感共情调节感知的父母间冲突和CRP（B = 0.39，SE = 0.19，p = 0.050）和父母报告的儿童健康（B = 0.30，SE = 0.13，p = 0.021）之间的关联，这样，更大的共情加强父母间冲突和儿童健康之间的负相关。总的来说，研究结果表明，在高冲突环境中更具同理心可能会产生生物成本，并强调需要工具来帮助更具同理心的儿童适当地管理替代情绪。
Interparental conflict is known to negatively impact child well-being, including behavioral and physiological well-being. Children’s empathy - that is, vicariously experiencing others’ emotions - may increase children’s sensitivity to and the biological repercussions of interparental conflict. Although empathy represents a valued trait and is an important part of socioemotional development, its influence on children’s physical health is unknown. This study examined whether empathy moderates the association between perceived interparental conflict and both child systemic inflammation and parent-rated overall child health in a sample of children between the ages of seven to nine. Children and their parents participating in the long-term evaluation of the Family Foundations program, a randomized trial of a perinatal preventative intervention, provided data approximately eight years following enrollment into the program. We collected peripheral blood samples via dried blood spots, anthropometric measurements, and child and parent psychosocial questionnaires. Results indicated significant positive main effects of child empathy on both C-reactive protein (CRP; B = 0.26, SE = 0.11,p=.026) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6; B = 0.20, SE = 0.10,p=.045) levels. Further, child affective empathy moderated the associations between perceived interparental conflict and both CRP (B = 0.39, SE = 0.19,p=.050) and parent-reported child health (B = 0.30, SE = 0.13,p=.021), such that greater empathy strengthened the negative associations between interparental conflict and child health. Overall, findings suggests that there may be a biological cost of being more empathic in high-conflict environments and highlight the need for tools to help more empathic children appropriately manage vicarious emotions.