Examining links between affective empathy, cognitive empathy, and peer relationships at the transition to school

This study examined the association between different features of children’s affective and cognitive empathy alongside theory of mind understanding at the transition to school, and their independent role for positive peer relationships, assessed by teachers and peers, controlling for verbal abilities. Affective empathy was measured using both observations of children’s facial affect during an empathy-eliciting event and dispositional affective empathy to peer distress via teacher report. Cognitive empathy was measured using an index of children’s proclivity to engage in perspective taking when witnessing the distress of another. Participants comprised 114 Australian children (Mage = 67 months, SD = 5 months) assessed across two sessions during their first year of formal schooling. Findings showed that children’s affective and cognitive empathy were unrelated, features of both showed independent associations with children’s positive peer relationships. Given the range of measures employed to assess empathy in young children, and the assumption that empathy is crucial for positive social behaviours, the implications of the current findings for our understanding of the importance of empathy in making and maintaining new peer relationships at the transition to school are discussed.