Historically, empathy has been thought to motivate prosocial behaviour and inhibit aggressive behaviour. Contrary to current assumptions and theoretical support, a meta-analysis revealed a small effect of empathy on aggression among adults (Vachon, Lynam, & Johnson, 2014). The current study sought to determine whether broadening the focus from empathy to include other socially relevant affective characteristics (i.e., callous-unemotional traits) was advantageous in predicting aggressive behaviour. As little is known about the strength of this association among youth, the current study meta-analytically examined 192 unique effect sizes drawn from published and unpublished studies reporting on samples of children and adolescents. Analyses were conducted across general, cognitive, and emotional empathy, as well as callous-unemotional traits, and general, direct, indirect, proactive, and reactive aggression. Significant variability was noted across effect sizes. Consistent with a prior meta-analysis involving adults (Vachon et al., 2014), small to moderate associations were identified between aggression and traditional measures of empathy (i.e., general, emotional, cognitive); these effects ranged from r = −0.06 to −0.26. Among broader measures of emotional style (i.e., callous-unemotional traits), moderate to large effects were found; ranging from r = 0.30 to 0.37. Results suggested that broader affective measures may be more strongly associated with aggression than empathy alone. The results raise questions about the nature of empathy assessment and indicate the utility of targeting multiple emotion-related factors during treatment to effectively reduce aggressive behaviour. In particular, the results underscore of the importance of considering the limited prosocial emotions specifier (perhaps trans-diagnostically given the varied nature of the sample) when considering implications for prognosis and treatment targets.

从历史上看，同理心被认为可以激发亲社会行为并抑制攻击行为。与当前的假设和理论支持相反，一项荟萃分析显示，同理心对成年人的攻击性影响很小（Vachon、Lynam 和 Johnson，2014 年）。目前的研究试图确定将关注点从同理心扩大到包括其他与社会相关的情感特征（即冷酷无情的特征）是否有利于预测攻击行为。由于对这种关联在青少年中的强度知之甚少，目前的研究对 192 种独特的效应量进行了荟萃分析，这些效应量取自已发表和未发表的儿童和青少年样本报告研究。对一般、认知和情感同理心以及冷酷无情的特征进行了分析，以及一般的、直接的、间接的、主动的和反应性的攻击。注意到跨效应大小的显着可变性。与先前涉及成人的荟萃分析（Vachon 等人，2014 年）一致，在攻击性和传统的同理心措施（即一般、情感、认知）之间发现了小到中度的关联；这些影响包括r  = −0.06 至 −0.26。在更广泛的情绪风格（即冷酷无情的特征）措施中，发现了中度到大的影响；范围从r  = 0.30 到 0.37。结果表明，与单独的同理心相比，更广泛的情感措施可能与攻击性的联系更紧密。结果提出了关于同理心评估的性质的问题，并表明在治疗期间针对多种情绪相关因素有效减少攻击行为的效用。特别是，结果强调了在考虑对预后和治疗目标的影响时考虑有限的亲社会情绪说明符（可能是跨诊断，因为样本的性质不同）的重要性。