۲- Method

۳- Results

۴- Discussion

References

Introduction

Empathy is a multidimensional construct whose development begins early in life. Several studies on the development of empathy, in fact, indicated that early environments assume an important role in sustaining the neurobiological underpinnings of both cognitive and affective aspects of empathy [1]. For instance, sensitive, responsive, and supportive caregiving may influence the development of typical levels of empathy [2, 3]. Although most of previous studies on the relations between early environment and empathy development have not focused on specific components (cognitive and affective) of empathy in isolation, those that have distinguished between cognitive empathy and affective empathy have indicated that sensitive parenting may sustain the development of capacities in both domains [4]. Such caregiving has been found to promote young children’s proclivity to take others’ perspectives and to predict increased empathic concern and perspective taking in adolescence [5]. It has likewise been shown to predict increases in children’s levels of prosocial behavior toward peers [6]. Previous studies argued that eye contact with attachment figures was critical for both emotional development and for the development of social cognition, including cognitive empathy [7, 8]. In other terms, these authors argued that reduced eye contact with attachment figures might contribute to the development of a lack of empathy. The implementation of eye gaze/emotional engagement strategies represents one of the targets of some parent training to implement child’s emotional engagement, parent-child interaction, and empathy development. In this framework, also, early negative experience such as maltreatments can influence the development of empathy; however, on this topic, the findings are still unclear.