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Young children who have experienced compassionate love and empathy from their mothers may be more willing to turn thoughts into action by being generous with others, suggests a study from the University of California, Davis.
In laboratory studies, children tested at ages 4 and 6 showed more willingness to hand over the tokens they had earned to imaginary children in need when two conditions were present: if they showed bodily changes when given the opportunity to share and they had experienced positive parenting that shaped that kindness. The study initially included 74 preschool children and their mothers. They were asked to return two years later, resulting in 54 mother-child pairs whose behaviors and reactions were analyzed when the children were 6 years old.
“At both ages, children with better physiological regulation and with mothers who expressed stronger compassionate love were likely to give more of their earnings,” said Paul Hastings, professor of psychology at UC Davis and mentor to the graduate student. conducted the study. “Compassionate mothers likely develop emotionally close relationships with their children while also providing a prime example of prosocial orientation towards the needs of others,” the researchers said in the study.
The study was published in November in Frontiers in Psychology: Science of Emotions. Co-authors were Jonas G. Miller, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University (who was a UC Davis doctoral student when the study was written); Sarah Kahle of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis; and Natalie R. Troxel, now on Facebook.
In each laboratory exercise, after connecting a monitor to record the children’s heartbeat activity, the examiner told the children that they would earn tokens for a variety of activities and that the tokens could be given out for a prize. The tokens were placed in a box and each child eventually earned 20 prize tokens. Then, before the session ended, the children were told that they could donate all or part of their tokens to other children (in the first instance, they were told they were for sick children who could not come and play, and in the second instance , they were told that the children were experiencing discomfort.)
At the same time, mothers answered questions about their compassionate love for their children and for others in general. Mothers selected phrases in a survey such as:
“I’d rather engage in actions that help my child than engage in actions that would help me.”
“Those I meet through my work and public life can assume I’ll be there if they need me.”
“I’d rather suffer myself than see someone else (a stranger) suffer.”
Taken together, the results showed that children’s generosity is supported by the combination of their socializing experiences – the compassionate love of their mothers – and their physiological regulation, and that these function as “internal and external supports for the ability to act in a prosocial way that build on each other. “
The results were similar at ages 4 and 6.
In addition to observing the children’s propensity to donate their play earnings, the researchers observed that being more generous also seemed to benefit the children. At both 4 and 6 years old, physiological recording showed that children who donated more tokens were calmer after the activity, compared to children who did not or donated few. They wrote that “prosocial behaviors can be inherently effective in calming one’s arousal.” Hastings suggested that “being in a calmer state after sharing could reinforce the generous behavior that produced that good feeling.”
Source of the story:
Materials provided by University of California – Davis. Original written by Karen Nikos-Rose. Note: The content can be changed by style and length.
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