Maternal responsiveness and the development of sympathic-prosocial behavior in preschool children - an observational study

This study deals with the question of the relation between a mother's responsiveness and the development of sympathy (empathy) as well as prosocial behavior in childhood starting from an attachment theoretical background. Altogether, 46 pairs of mothers and their daughters were examined cross-sectionally and-longitudinally at two respectively three points of measurement. In order to assess mothers' responsiveness, each mother-daughter pair participated in a videotaped interaction situation for about half an hour. Furthermore, each child was observed in a standardized interaction situation with respect to emotional and prosocial reactions. The results showed that for the 2-year old girls, the mothers' responsiveness tended to be positively related to the prosocial behavior of the child and negatively related to the distress of the child. There, were no significant results for the 3- and the 5-year old girls. The results for the longitudinal samples of the 5-year-olds clearly showed the positive influence of mothers' responsiveness when the, children were 2 years old on their socio-emotional development 3 years later. It is discussed whether specific experiences exert an influence only at specific times in development, and on specific psychological functions for a limited time.