Linking Parent–Child and Peer Relationship Quality to Empathy in Adolescence: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis

Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Feb 2019

Empathy, which is the ability to feel concern for and to understand others’ feelings, is thought to develop in high quality relationships with parent and peers, but also to facilitate the quality of these relationships. While a wide literature has addressed this aspect, the heterogeneity of primary studies, in which different indicators of relationship quality (e.g., support, conflict) and empathy (i.e., affective and cognitive) have been examined, makes it difficult to draw conclusive answers. Therefore, it remained ambiguous how parent–child and peer relationship quality are associated with adolescents’ empathy. In order to increase the understanding of these associations, a multilevel meta-analysis was performed, which allowed for including multiple effect sizes from each study. By a systematic literate search, 70 eligible studies were found that provided 390 effect sizes from 75 independent samples. The results showed a small positive correlation between parent–child relationship quality and empathy, and a small-to-moderate positive correlation between peer relationship quality and empathy, which was significantly stronger than the correlation with parent–child relationship quality. Hence, the meta-analytic results indicate that adolescents with higher quality relationships, especially with peers, indeed tend to show more concern for and understanding of others’ emotions than adolescents with lower quality relationships. Moreover, the moderation analyses showed stronger correlations for the positive dimension of relationship quality than for the negative dimension, and stronger correlations for composite scores of affective and cognitive empathy than for separate scores of the empathy dimensions. However, no differences in correlations were found between the affective and cognitive empathy dimension, and no moderation effects were found for gender and age. Thus, this meta-analysis demonstrates robust positive associations between parent–child and peer relationship quality and empathy in adolescence, implying that good empathic abilities may be a protective factor for experiencing poor relationships.

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Linking Parent–Child and Peer Relationship Quality to Empathy in Adolescence: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis

Journal of Youth and Adolescence pp 1–23 | Cite as Linking Parent–Child and Peer Relationship Quality to Empathy in Adolescence: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis AuthorsAuthors and affiliations Savannah BoeleJolien Van der GraaffMinet de WiedInge E. Van der ValkElisabetta CrocettiSusan Branje Open Access Systematic Literature Review First Online: 27 February 2019 14 Shares 410 Downloads Abstract Empathy, which is the ability to feel concern for and to understand others’ feelings, is thought to develop in high quality relationships with parent and peers, but also to facilitate the quality of these relationships. While a wide literature has addressed this aspect, the heterogeneity of primary studies, in which different indicators of relationship quality (e.g., support, conflict) and empathy (i.e., affective and cognitive) have been examined, makes it difficult to draw conclusive answers. Therefore, it remained ambiguous how parent–child and peer relationship quality are associated with adolescents’ empathy. In order to increase the understanding of these associations, a multilevel meta-analysis was performed, which allowed for including multiple effect sizes from each study. By a systematic literate search, 70 eligible studies were found that provided 390 effect sizes from 75 independent samples. The results showed a small positive correlation between parent–child relationship quality and empathy, and a small-to-moderate positive correlation between peer relationship quality and empathy, which was significantly stronger than the correlation with parent–child relationship quality. Hence, the meta-analytic results indicate that adolescents with higher quality relationships, especially with peers, indeed tend to show more concern for and understanding of others’ emotions than adolescents with lower quality relationships. Moreover, the moderation analyses showed stronger correlations for the positive dimension of relationship quality than for the negative dimension, and stronger correlations for composite scores of affective and cognitive empathy than for separate scores of the empathy dimensions. However, no differences in correlations were found between the affective and cognitive empathy dimension, and no moderation effects were found for gender and age. Thus, this meta-analysis demonstrates robust positive associations between parent–child and peer relationship quality and empathy in adolescence, implying that good empathic abilities may be a protective factor for experiencing poor relationships. KeywordsRelationship quality Parent–child relationship Peer relationship Empathy Adolescence Multilevel meta-analysis  Introduction Relationship quality and empathy are thought to be closely related in adolescence. High relationship quality is considered essential for the socialization of empathy, which can occur through the modeling of warm and supportive behavior (Barnett 1987; Eisenberg et al. 2003). Reversely, empathy may foster the quality of adolescents’ relationships, as a higher ability to share and understand others’ emotions is related to more prosocial and less aggressive behavior towards others (Eisenberg et al. 2010) and better conflict resolution strategies (e.g., de Wied et al. 2007). Nonetheless, there still exists some uncertainty about the association between relationship quality and empathy in adolescence, because of the variation in research design and inconsistencies in results of empirical studies on this topic thus far. Therefore, this meta-analysis examined concurrent correlations between adolescent relationship quality and empathy in community samples. Relationship quality with parents and peers were separately examined and moderation analyses were conducted to explain differences in strengths of correlations between studies. Relationship Quality and EmpathyDefining empathy Empathy is a multidimensional construct that involves other-oriented affective and cognitive responses to another person’s emotions. Affective empathy includes sharing similar emotions (emotional contagion) or feeling sorrow or concern for the observed other (empathic concern). Cognitive empathy refers to the understanding of another person’s feelings, for example through perspective taking or mentalizing processes (Davis 1983). Affective and cognitive empathy are related (e.g., Jolliffe and Farrington 2006; Van der Graaff et al. 2018), indicating that individuals with a better understanding of other’s emotions are likely to also experience more shared feelings or empathic concern. Indeed, it is understood that both responses are needed to enable empathic behavioral responses to others, such as offering comfort (Davis 1983). Although they are connected, affective and cognitive empathy are also distinct processes (Decety and Jackson 2004), and previous research revealed different associations with social functioning (e.g., Batanova and Loukas 2011; Van der Graaff et al. 2018). Thus, although affec (...truncated)


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Savannah Boele, Jolien Van der Graaff, Minet de Wied, Inge E. Van der Valk, Elisabetta Crocetti, Susan Branje. Linking Parent–Child and Peer Relationship Quality to Empathy in Adolescence: A Multilevel Meta-Analysis, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 2019, pp. 1-23, DOI: 10.1007/s10964-019-00993-5