Peer-reviewed article
Early Life Adversity and Prosocial Behavior in Adolescence: The Mediating Role of Childhood Empathy
Duyen T. Trang, Stacey N. Doan, Brianne R. Coulombe, Tuppett M. Yates ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This longitudinal study followed 250 US youth from early childhood to age 17 to see how adversity in the first four years of life relates to prosocial behavior in adolescence. It looked at whether empathy at age 8 helps explain the link. Different types of early adversity had different effects. Relational adversity was linked to lower prosocial behavior through lower affective empathy, while biological adversity was linked to higher prosocial behavior through higher affective empathy. Environmental adversity and cognitive empathy were not linked to prosocial behavior.
Key points
- Relational early life adversity was linked to decreased adolescent prosocial behavior, mediated by lower affective empathy.
- Biological early life adversity was linked to increased adolescent prosocial behavior, mediated by higher affective empathy.
- Environmental early life adversity was not associated with prosocial behavior.
- Cognitive empathy was not associated with prosocial behavior.
- The authors suggest future work on socialization factors and interventions that enhance affective empathy among adolescents with biological and relational adversity.
Limitations
The abstract describes associations in a US sample of 250 youth and does not test an intervention, so it cannot show that changing empathy would change prosocial behavior. Adversity and empathy were reported by parents, and findings may not apply to children in other countries or settings.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Extensive evidence demonstrates that early life adversity (ELA) has enduring contributions to psychological and physical problems, yet little research has examined how ELA may potentially influence positive adaptation. In this longitudinal, multi-method study, we explored prospective relations from childhood ELA subtypes (i.e., relational, environmental, biological) to adolescents' observed prosocial behavior (i.e., resource allocation to benefit others) via parent reports of childhood cognitive and affective empathy. METHODS: Participants were 250 youth (50% assigned female at birth; 46% Latine, 18% Black, 11.2% White, 0.4% Asian, and 24.4% multiracial) and parents who completed laboratory assessments at ages 4, 8, or 17. ELA across the first 4 years of life and childhood empathy (age 8) were assessed via parent reports, whereas prosocial behavior was measured using teacher reports (age 8) and a computer-based behavioral assessment (age 17). RESULTS: Controlling for youth's assigned sex, ethnicity-race, and prior prosocial behavior, path analyses revealed distinct pathways across ELA subtypes. A significant path from relational ELA to decreased prosocial behavior was mediated by lower affective empathy, aligning with deficit-based frameworks of adversity. However, consistent with strength-based perspectives, a significant path from biological ELA to increased prosocial behavior was mediated by higher affective empathy. Neither environmental ELA nor cognitive empathy was associated with prosocial behavior. CONCLUSIONS: Future research should explore socialization factors and interventions that enhance affective empathy among adolescents with biological and relational ELA, while considering multiple forms of prosocial behavior (e.g., helping vs. comforting) and additional mechanisms that may underlie these observed pathways (e.g., sensitive parenting, motivation).