Depressive symptoms in parents are associated with reduced empathy toward their young children

Editorial reading guide · Kindness

When I am feeling low, which feelings in my child are hardest to notice?

For the Kindness section, this study offers a way to examine the distinction between general empathy and empathy toward one’s own child.

Who was studied?

150 parents from a nonclinical sample reporting on themselves and their children

Age / stage: Parents of young children

Read with three questions

1. How did the authors investigate the distinction between general empathy and empathy toward one’s own child?
2. Whose report describes the parent, the child and the outcome, and where might those reports differ?
3. How did parents’ scores for empathy in general relate to empathy toward their own children?

Keep the limits in view

Parents’ self-reports of symptoms and empathy may reflect current mood. The study did not establish what a child experienced on a particular occasion.