The Effect Of Childhood Trauma On Prosocial Behavior:the Role Of Empathy

BackgroundChildhood abuse and childhood neglect which are considered as two distinct forms of childhood trauma,have been shown to have different effects on individual’s growth and development.And the influences of childhood abuse and childhood neglect and the potential pathways between these factors have not been clarified.Empathy could be an important mediating factor to link childhood trauma and prosocial behavior.Objects(1)Explore the relationships among childhood abuse,childhood neglect,adverse experiences,prosocial behavior,cognitive and emotional empathy;(2)Examine the differences in prosocial preferences and situational prosocial behavior between abuse and neglect group and exploring the empathic characteristic of these two groups for positive and negative emotions.(3)Examine whether the empathic characteristics of groups will contribute to their differences in prosocial preferences or situational prosocial behavior.MethodsThe current research contains two studies.Study 1 is a questionnaire survey,in which 1569 college students were recruited as participants by cluster sampling.Childhood Trauma Questionnaire(CTQ)was used to collect individuals’ experience of childhood trauma(childhood abuse and neglect),and Prosocial Tendencies Measure(PTM)was used to measure prosocial behavior,and Interpersonal Reactivity Index(IRI)was used to measure empathy ability(emotional empathy and cognitive empathy).The MacArthur Scale of Subjective Social Status was used to assess individuals’ subjective socioeconomic status of their family.Participants were asked to report their left-behind experiences.Network analysis was conducted to examine the relationships among childhood trauma,childhood adverse experience,prosocial behavior,cognitive and emotional empathy.In Study 2,CTQ and Maltreatment and Abuse Chronology of Exposure(MACE)were used to divide participants into three groups:pure childhood abuse group(abuse group),pure childhood neglect group(neglect group)and lack of experiencing childhood trauma group(non-trauma group).Prosocial behavior under different situations was measured by PTM.The prosocial preference was assessed by Monetary Outcome-pair Evaluation Task.The Multidimensional Empathy Task(MET)was used to assess cognitive and emotional empathy for positive emotions(happiness)and negative emotions(anger,sadness,and fear).ANOVA was conducted to examine the differences in prosocial preference and situational prosocial behavior among groups,as well as the empathic characteristics.Mediation analysis of categorical variables was performed to examine the relative mediating effect of empathic characteristics between groups and prosocial preference or situational prosocial behavior.ResultsStudy 1 found that childhood neglect was directly and negatively associated with prosocial behavior and emotional empathy.Childhood abuse,low socioeconomic status and left-behind experience were associated with prosocial behavior and emotional empathy only through childhood neglect.In Study 2:(1)No significant difference was found in prosocial preference among abuse group,neglect group and non-trauma group(F(2,157)=0.381,p=0.684);(2)Emotional and dire prosocial behavior were significantly different among groups(F(2,157)=5.713,p=0.004;F(2,157)=4.196,p=0.017).Neglect group showed lower emotional and dire prosocial behavior than non-trauma group(p=0.001,p=0.009),but there was no significant difference between abuse group and non-trauma group in these two forms of situational prosocial behavior(p=0.474,p=0.850).Neglect group showed lower dire prosocial behavior than abuse group(p=0.021),but it had no significant differences in emotional prosocial behavior(p=0.267);(3)Emotional empathy for happiness and fear were significantly different among groups(F(2,156)=3.635,p=0.029;F(2,156)=3.088,p=0.048).Compared to non-trauma group and abuse group,neglect group showed lower emotional empathy of happiness and fear(p=0.008,p=0.040),but there was no significant difference between abuse group and non-trauma group(p=0.196;p=0.830).Neglect group presented lower emotional empathy for fear than abuse group(p=0.029),but not for happiness(p=0.196).(4)No significant difference of cognitive empathy was found among groups.(5)The emotional empathy for fear mediated the association between groups and dire prosocial behavior.Compared to non-trauma group,neglect group showed significant relative total effect(95%CI=[-1.29,-0.18])and relative mediating effect(95%CI=[-0.24,-0.02])with an effect size of the relative mediating effect in 20.4%,while abuse group did not have(the relative total effect:95%CI=[-0.64,0.52];the relative mediating effect:95%CI=[-0.09,0.11]).Emotional empathy for happiness did not mediate the relationship between groups and dire prosocial behavior.Emotional empathy for neither happiness nor fear did not mediate the relationship between groups and emotional prosocial behavior.Conclusions(1)Childhood neglect have more profound effects on prosocial behavior and emotional empathy.Childhood abuse,low socioeconomic status,and left-behind experience are associated with prosocial behavior and emotional empathy only through childhood neglect.(2)The negative effects of childhood neglect on prosocial behavior are situational dependent,which is manifested in emotional and dire situations,while there was no significant effect on prosocial preference.Individuals with childhood neglect shows low emotional empathy for happiness and fear,and the low emotional empathy for fear mediates low dire prosocial behavior in the neglected people.(3)Childhood abuse could not affect prosocial preference,situational prosocial behavior,cognitive and emotional empathy for both positive and negative emotions.