Despite ample research on empathy development, its social origins have been understudied, particularly in the context of peer relations. This two-wave study of Swedish adolescents (N = 318; MageT1 = 16.28, SD = .49; 55% females) examined longitudinal associations between youth friendships and empathy. The results showed that adolescents befriended peers with similar levels of empathy and that, controlling for the initial similarity in empathy, youth who had more empathic friends increased in empathy over time compared with youth with less empathic friends. These selection and influence effects were comparable for the affective and cognitive empathy components (i.e., empathic concern and perspective taking). These results provide strong evidence for the role of friendships in the development of empathy. They underscore the importance of peer-based, social-emotional programs to foster adolescent empathy. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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在我的同理心朋友的帮助下：同龄人在青春期同理心发展中的作用。

尽管对移情发展进行了大量研究，但对其社会起源的研究仍然不足，特别是在同伴关系的背景下。这项针对瑞典青少年的两波研究（N = 318；MageT1 = 16.28，SD = .49；55% 的女性）检查了青年友谊和同理心之间的纵向关联。结果表明，青少年与具有相似同理心水平的同龄人交朋友，并且控制了同理心的初始相似性，与同理心朋友较少的青年相比，具有更多同理心朋友的年轻人的同理心随着时间的推移而增加。这些选择和影响效应对于情感和认知移情成分（即移情关注和观点采取）具有可比性。这些结果为友谊在同理心发展中的作用提供了有力的证据。他们强调了基于同行的重要性，促进青少年同理心的社会情感计划。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 (c) 2022 APA，保留所有权利）。