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Emotion Regulation and Empathy: Which Relation with Social Conduct?
Fiorenzo Laghi1, Antonia Lonigro1, Susanna Pallini2
1a Department of Social and Developmental Psychology , Sapienza University of Rome , Rome , Italy.
The Journal of Genetic Psychology
|February 1, 2018
Summary
Emotion regulation strategies significantly influence empathy and social behaviors in adolescents. Cognitive reappraisal fosters prosocial actions, while internalizing behaviors link to emotion regulation, and externalizing behaviors to perspective-taking.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Effective emotion regulation is linked to empathy and moral behavior.
- Understanding how specific emotion regulation strategies impact empathy components and social conduct is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the differential impact of suppression and reappraisal on cognitive and affective empathy.
- To examine the relationship between emotion regulation strategies, empathy, and distinct social behaviors (prosocial, internalizing, externalizing) in adolescents.
Main Methods:
- A sample of 219 middle adolescents completed self-report measures.
- Assessed emotion regulation strategies (suppression, reappraisal).
- Evaluated cognitive and affective empathy components and social behaviors.
Main Results:
- Emotion regulation strategies and empathy components show distinct relationships with social behaviors.
- Cognitive reappraisal positively predicted prosocial behavior, mediated by empathic concern.
- Internalizing behaviors were associated with emotion regulation strategies, while externalizing behaviors were linked to perspective-taking ability.
Conclusions:
- Emotion regulation strategies differentially impact empathy and social conduct in adolescents.
- Targeting cognitive reappraisal may enhance prosocial behavior through empathic concern.
- Interventions for internalizing and externalizing behaviors may need to consider specific emotion regulation and empathy components.
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