Children's understanding of the feeling experience and causes of sympathy

German children in five age groups, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12 and 14-15 years, were interviewed about feeling experiences of sympathy and situations that elicit sympathy. While the younger children focussed on the emotion of sadness, the older children increasingly described sympathy as a multi-dimensional emotional experience consisting of sadness, desire to help, and preoccupied thoughts about the other in distress. The most marked developmental change occurred in the frequency of reference to preoccupied thoughts. The older children regarded severe life-threatening distress as situations that elicit sympathy, whereas the younger children spontaneously named everyday life distress or favourite animals.