Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Oct;22(4):544-567.
doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2007.08.003.

The Relations of Effortful Control and Impulsivity to Children's Sympathy: A Longitudinal Study

Nancy Eisenberg  1 , Nicole Michalik, Tracy L Spinrad, Claire Hofer, Anne Kupfer, Carlos Valiente, Jeffrey Liew, Amanda Cumberland, Mark Reiser
Affiliations

The Relations of Effortful Control and Impulsivity to Children's Sympathy: A Longitudinal Study

Nancy Eisenberg et al. Cogn Dev. 2007 Oct.

Abstract

The relations of children's (n = 214 at Time 1; M age = 6 years at Time 1) dispositional sympathy to adult-reported and behavioral measures of effortful control (EC) and impulsivity were examined in a longitudinal study including five assessments, each two years apart. Especially for boys, relatively high levels of EC and growth in EC were related to high sympathy. Teacher-reported impulsivity was generally modestly negatively related to measures of teacher-reported sympathy for boys, and a decline in impulsivity was linked to boys' sympathy. Some findings suggested a positive association between impulsivity and children's self-reported sympathy. EC, especially when reported by teachers, was more often a unique predictor of sympathy than was impulsivity. Results generally support the argument that sympathetic individuals, especially boys, are high in EC and that EC is a more consistent predictor of sympathy than impulsivity.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Achenbach TM. Integrative guide for the 1991 CBCL/4-18. YSR and TRF profiles. Burlington: University of Vermont Department of Psychiatry; 1991.
    1. Bandura A, Caprara GV, Barbaranelli C, Gerbino M, Pastorelli C. Role of affective self-regulatory efficacy in diverse sphere of psychosocial functioning. Child Development. 2003;74:769–782. - PubMed
    1. Batson CD. The altruism question: Toward a social-psychological answer. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum; 1991.
    1. Blair C, Zelazo PD, Greenberg MT. The measurement of executive function in early childhood. Developmental Neuropsychology. 2005;28:561–571. - PubMed
    1. Cacioppo JT, Gardner WL, Berntson GG. The affect system has parallel and integrative processing components: Form follows function. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 1999;76:839–855.

LinkOut - more resources