Empathy Development in Infancy and Adolescence: The Role of Attachment

研究项目：移情能力是社会情绪能力的核心组成部分(CASEL， 2019年)。在整个发展过程中，同理心与有益的社会结果有关，而缺乏同理心则是 牵涉到儿童时期的外在问题、青春期的欺凌和成年后的虐待儿童 (Burke，2001；Eisenberg，2017；van Noorden，Haselager，Cillessen，&Bukowski，2015)。从一个健康的 从另一个角度来看，确定支持同理心的因素对于理解和培养积极的社会关系至关重要 在整个生命周期中发挥作用。支持同理心发展的一个因素是亲子关系。 依恋。拟议项目的目标是通过以下方式解决移情文献中的主要空白 考察依恋在两个发展敏感时期对同理心的贡献：婴儿期和 青春期。研究1测试12个月的婴儿依恋是否预示着18个月的同理心(目标1) 并考察了这种联系的两个新的中介，基于依恋理论：内部工作模型和 神经认知机制(目标2)。参与者将包括120名婴儿和他们的照顾者。照顾者将 完成广泛使用的附件Q-Sort(Waters&Deane，1985)；六个月后，观察婴儿的 对两种自然模拟的痛苦(实验者的身体痛苦和悲伤)的反应将是 为同理心编码。内部工作模式将使用创新的视觉习惯化范式进行衡量 这利用了婴儿对照顾者反应的期望(Johnson等人，2010年)，以及婴儿的神经和 对情绪的注意反应将使用功能性近红外光谱(FNIRS)和眼睛- 在查看情绪面孔时进行跟踪。研究2使用来自纵向研究的预先存在的数据来测试 依恋预测青春期移情能力的发展。参与者包括185名青少年，他们 在14岁时完成了黄金标准的成人附件面试(George，Kaplan，&Main，1996)，并 在14岁、15岁、16岁和17岁时与同龄人进行解决问题的讨论；同理心将从 这些观察到的同级相互作用。建议的项目带来了一种依恋理论视角 理解同理心的发展，有助于阐明父母教养方式对 在发展敏感时期的同理心，并提供有关关系的重要信息 有助于同理心的因素，可以为未来的研究和干预工作提供信息。 培训计划和环境：博士后培训将有助于启动皮斯特恩的职业生涯 科学家致力于了解社会关系如何影响儿童和青少年的结果。这个 弗吉尼亚大学资源丰富的背景为课程和专业提供了广泛的机会 开发用于进行尖端神经生物学和行为研究的新技能。这个 三位婴儿社会性脑发育专家(格罗斯曼博士)、同理心专家(格罗斯曼博士)的联合指导。 Vaish)和青少年依恋(艾伦博士)将为斯特恩博士的研究生涯提供关键支持。

Research Project: The capacity to empathize is a core component of social-emotional competence (CASEL, 2019). Across development, empathy is linked to beneficial social outcomes, whereas the lack of empathy is implicated in externalizing problems in childhood, bullying in adolescence, and child abuse in adulthood (Burke, 2001; Eisenberg, 2017; van Noorden, Haselager, Cillessen, & Bukowski, 2015). From a health perspective, identifying factors that support empathy is critical for understanding and nurturing positive social functioning across the life span. One factor thought to support the development of empathy is parent-child attachment. The objective of the proposed project is to address key gaps in the empathy literature by examining the contribution of attachment to empathy during two sensitive periods of development: infancy and adolescence. Study 1 tests whether infant attachment at 12 months predicts empathy at 18 months (Aim 1) and examines two novel mediators of this link, grounded in attachment theory: internal working models and neurocognitive mechanisms (Aim 2). Participants will include 120 infants and their caregivers. Caregivers will complete the widely used Attachment Q-Sort (Waters & Deane, 1985); six months later, infants’ observed responses to two naturalistic simulations of distress (an experimenter’s physical pain and sadness) will be coded for empathy. Internal working models will be measured using an innovative visual habituation paradigm that taps infants’ expectations of caregiver responsiveness (Johnson et al., 2010), and infants’ neural and attentional responses to emotion will be recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and eye- tracking while viewing emotional faces. Study 2 uses pre-existing data from a longitudinal study to test whether attachment predicts empathy development across adolescence. Participants include 185 adolescents who completed the gold standard Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996) at age 14 and engaged in a problem-solving discussion with a peer at ages 14, 15, 16, and 17; empathy will be coded from these observed peer interactions. The proposed project brings an attachment theoretical perspective to understanding empathy development, sheds light on the mechanisms by which parenting contributes to empathy during sensitive periods of development, and provides important information about the relationship factors contributing to empathy that can inform future research and intervention efforts. Training Plan and Environment: Post-doctoral training will help launch PI Stern’s career as a developmental scientist invested in understanding how social relationships shape child and adolescent outcomes. The resource-rich context of University of Virginia provides extensive opportunities for coursework and professional development to build new skills for conducting cutting-edge neurobiological and behavioral research. The combined mentorship of three experts in infant social brain development (Dr. Grossmann), empathy (Dr. Vaish), and adolescent attachment (Dr. Allen) will provide key support for Dr. Stern’s research career.