Too much of a good thing? Affective empathy modulates the link between maladaptive coping and internalizing problems in children

Empathy is widely seen as a strength and is the focus of social-emotional learning globally. Yet, the ‘too-much-of-a-good-thing’ principle posits that positive resources are rarely universally beneficial; rather, under specific boundary conditions, harms may be generated. We shed light on whether em...

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Main Authors: Yu, Meryl, Kyeong, Yena, Phua, Desiree, Broekman, Birit, Eriksson, Johan Gunnar, Chen, Helen Yu, Setoh, Peipei
Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/176108
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Institution: Nanyang Technological University
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spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1761082024-06-02T15:30:55Z Too much of a good thing? Affective empathy modulates the link between maladaptive coping and internalizing problems in children Yu, Meryl Kyeong, Yena Phua, Desiree Broekman, Birit Eriksson, Johan Gunnar Chen, Helen Yu Setoh, Peipei School of Social Sciences Division of Psychology National University of Singapore KK Women's and Children's Hospital Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences, A*STAR Social Sciences Empathy is widely seen as a strength and is the focus of social-emotional learning globally. Yet, the ‘too-much-of-a-good-thing’ principle posits that positive resources are rarely universally beneficial; rather, under specific boundary conditions, harms may be generated. We shed light on whether empathy is helpful or harmful in the maintenance cycle of psychopathology. To this end, we examined whether empathy moderates the relationship linking maladaptive coping with internalising and externalising problems one year later. We used longitudinal data of 98 (48% girls) mother-child dyads from Singapore’s largest birth cohort. Mothers rated children’s cognitive (CE) and affective empathy (AE) with Griffith Empathy Scale at age 4.5. Children self-rated maladaptive coping at age 11 with Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and internalising and externalising problems with Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at age 12. Separate linear regression analyses were conducted, controlling for child gender, internalising or externalising problems (age 4) and socioeconomic status (baseline). There was a significant interaction of AE with self-blame, rumination, and catastrophising, on internalising problems (B=0.03, 0.020, 0.02, SE=0.009, 0.01, 0.009, ps<.05). Specifically, only when coupled with high and moderate levels of AE, self-blame (B=0.52, 0.24, SE=0.12, 0.08, ps<.001), rumination (B=0.42, 0.21, SE=0.14, 0.09, ps<.05), and catastrophising (B=0.48, 0.22, SE=0.13, 0.08, ps<.05) positively predicted internalising problems one year later. No significant main or interaction effects were found for cognitive empathy. Overall, empathy interventions should be cautious of plausible adverse harms arising from overdrives of AE. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) Ministry of Education (MOE) Ministry of Health (MOH) National Medical Research Council (NMRC) National Research Foundation (NRF) 2024-05-31T01:09:46Z 2024-05-31T01:09:46Z 2024 Working Paper Yu, M., Kyeong, Y., Phua, D., Broekman, B., Eriksson, J. G., Chen, H. Y. & Setoh, P. (2024). Too much of a good thing? Affective empathy modulates the link between maladaptive coping and internalizing problems in children. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/176108 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/176108 en NUHSRO/2021/093/NUSMed/13/LOA OF-LCG; MOH-000504 RG39/22 © 2024 The Author(s). All rights reserved. application/pdf
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social Sciences
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Yu, Meryl
Kyeong, Yena
Phua, Desiree
Broekman, Birit
Eriksson, Johan Gunnar
Chen, Helen Yu
Setoh, Peipei
Too much of a good thing? Affective empathy modulates the link between maladaptive coping and internalizing problems in children
description Empathy is widely seen as a strength and is the focus of social-emotional learning globally. Yet, the ‘too-much-of-a-good-thing’ principle posits that positive resources are rarely universally beneficial; rather, under specific boundary conditions, harms may be generated. We shed light on whether empathy is helpful or harmful in the maintenance cycle of psychopathology. To this end, we examined whether empathy moderates the relationship linking maladaptive coping with internalising and externalising problems one year later. We used longitudinal data of 98 (48% girls) mother-child dyads from Singapore’s largest birth cohort. Mothers rated children’s cognitive (CE) and affective empathy (AE) with Griffith Empathy Scale at age 4.5. Children self-rated maladaptive coping at age 11 with Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, and internalising and externalising problems with Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at age 12. Separate linear regression analyses were conducted, controlling for child gender, internalising or externalising problems (age 4) and socioeconomic status (baseline). There was a significant interaction of AE with self-blame, rumination, and catastrophising, on internalising problems (B=0.03, 0.020, 0.02, SE=0.009, 0.01, 0.009, ps<.05). Specifically, only when coupled with high and moderate levels of AE, self-blame (B=0.52, 0.24, SE=0.12, 0.08, ps<.001), rumination (B=0.42, 0.21, SE=0.14, 0.09, ps<.05), and catastrophising (B=0.48, 0.22, SE=0.13, 0.08, ps<.05) positively predicted internalising problems one year later. No significant main or interaction effects were found for cognitive empathy. Overall, empathy interventions should be cautious of plausible adverse harms arising from overdrives of AE.
author2 School of Social Sciences
author_facet School of Social Sciences
Yu, Meryl
Kyeong, Yena
Phua, Desiree
Broekman, Birit
Eriksson, Johan Gunnar
Chen, Helen Yu
Setoh, Peipei
format Working Paper
author Yu, Meryl
Kyeong, Yena
Phua, Desiree
Broekman, Birit
Eriksson, Johan Gunnar
Chen, Helen Yu
Setoh, Peipei
author_sort Yu, Meryl
title Too much of a good thing? Affective empathy modulates the link between maladaptive coping and internalizing problems in children
title_short Too much of a good thing? Affective empathy modulates the link between maladaptive coping and internalizing problems in children
title_full Too much of a good thing? Affective empathy modulates the link between maladaptive coping and internalizing problems in children
title_fullStr Too much of a good thing? Affective empathy modulates the link between maladaptive coping and internalizing problems in children
title_full_unstemmed Too much of a good thing? Affective empathy modulates the link between maladaptive coping and internalizing problems in children
title_sort too much of a good thing? affective empathy modulates the link between maladaptive coping and internalizing problems in children
publishDate 2024
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/176108
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