Intersections Among Attachment, Empathy and Emotion Regulation in Middle Childhood

Within secure attachment relationships, caregivers function as primary sources of self-regulation and foster empathy. Affective empathy refers to the direct sharing of others' emotional states, whereas cognitive empathy involves understanding the meaning of others' affective displays. Although robust evidence links secure attachment to empathy, research examining the mediating role of emotion regulation (ER) during middle childhood remains limited. Participants were 214 children (108 girls) aged 8-12 years (M = 9.28 ± 1.09) and their parents (86.3% mothers). Children completed the Security Scale (SS), assessing Safe Haven (SH) and Secure Base (SB), as well the Questionnaire to Assess Affective and Cognitive Empathy in Children (QACE). Primary caregivers completed the Emotion Regulation Checklist assessing children's ER and lability/negativity. Results indicated that global ER was positively associated with cognitive (rCEcog = 0.17, p < 0.05) but not affective empathy. Mediation analyses revealed that attachment was significantly associated with children's empathy (β = 0.40-0.53, p < 0.001); however, ER did not mediate this association. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that maternal SH and paternal SB were strongly associated with cognitive and global empathy, whereas only maternal SH was strongly associated with affective empathy. These results underscore the robustness of attachment theory as an organising framework for socioemotional development regarding the processes during middle childhood.