Emotion recognition and emotion regulation have been implicated as promising correlates of sympathy. However, their relative and joint contributions to sympathy in different periods of childhood remain unclear. Moreover, researchers have not explored the relative importance of recognizing and regulating distinct distress-related emotions, such as sadness and anger, for sympathy. The objective of the current paper was to gain a deeper understanding of which underlying emotion-related factors are most implicated in sympathy and when in childhood they are most predictive. With an ethnically diverse sample of 4- and 8-yearolds (N = 300, n = 150 in each age group; 50% female), this study tested sadness and anger recognition and regulation, and interactions thereof, as predictors of sympathy. Better sadness and anger regulation independently predicted higher levels of sympathy in 4- and 8-year-olds, albeit sadness regulation was a more robust predictor of sympathy in 4-year-olds. Better sadness recognition was associated with higher sympathy in 8-year-olds who also had better sadness regulation. Results underscore the importance of emotion regulation for sympathy, particularly in early childhood. The findings also tentatively suggest that the correlates of sympathy may become more nuanced in middle childhood, with emotion-specific recognition and regulation capacities employed in concert.

中文翻译：

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儿童同情的相关因素：悲伤和愤怒的识别和调节

情绪识别和情绪调节被认为是同情的有希望的相关因素。然而，他们在儿童不同时期对同情的相对和共同贡献仍不清楚。此外，研究人员还没有探讨识别和调节不同的痛苦相关情绪（如悲伤和愤怒）对同情的相对重要性。本论文的目的是更深入地了解哪些潜在的与情绪相关的因素与同情心最相关，以及它们在儿童时期何时最具预测性。具有种族多样化的 4 岁和 8 岁样本（N = 300，n= 每个年龄组 150 人；50% 女性），这项研究测试了悲伤和愤怒的识别和调节，以及它们之间的相互作用，作为同情的预测指标。更好的悲伤和愤怒调节独立预测了 4 岁和 8 岁儿童的更高水平的同情，尽管悲伤调节是 4 岁儿童同情的更强有力的预测指标。更好的悲伤识别与 8 岁儿童的更高同情心有关，他们也有更好的悲伤调节。结果强调了情绪调节对同情的重要性，特别是在儿童早期。研究结果还初步表明，在儿童中期，同情的相关性可能会变得更加微妙，同时采用特定的情绪识别和调节能力。