Compassionate love and beneficence in the family

Compassionate love, generally defined as giving oneself for the good of another, has been receiving increased attention, especially in the context of romantic relationships. The purpose of the present research was to examine compassionate love "where it begins," namely, in the family. Seven studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that compassionate love would be correlated with various kinds of beneficence in familial relationships, including parent-child (Studies 1 and 2) and adult child-parent relationships (Studies 3-7). Levels of compassionate love and beneficence varied somewhat, depending on the gender of the parent and the child (e.g., adult children reported more compassionate love for their mother than their father). Across relationships, there was strong support for the main prediction that compassionate love would be associated with beneficence, such as willingness to sacrifice, responsive caregiving, and the provision of support. However, it was not the case that compassionate love was negatively associated with variables that were expected to be antithetical to beneficence (e.g., caregiving motivated by obligation). It was concluded that it is important to promote compassionate love where it begins-in the home-given its strong associations with other-oriented, prosocial motivations and behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).