Perspective taking and empathic concern in adolescence: Gender differences in developmental changes.

TLDR

Empathy is a key social skill that underpins moral development. The study longitudinally examined how adolescents’ perspective taking and empathic concern evolve from age 13 to 18 and how these changes relate to pubertal development. Participants (283 boys, 214 girls) self‑reported perspective taking and empathic concern annually for six years and pubertal status for four years. Results revealed gender differences: girls showed steeper increases and higher levels of both constructs, whereas boys experienced a decline in empathic concern during early adolescence that rebounded later, with more mature boys reporting lower empathic concern, supporting the idea that perspective taking develops with cognitive maturation and that pubertal status influences boys’ empathic concern.

Abstract

Empathy is an important social skill and is believed to play an essential role in moral development (Hoffman, 2000). In the present longitudinal study, the authors investigated adolescents' development of perspective taking and empathic concern from age 13 to 18 years (mean age at Wave 1 = 13 years, SD = 0.46) and examined its association with pubertal status. Adolescents (283 boys, 214 girls) reported for 6 consecutive years on their dispositional perspective taking and empathic concern and for 4 consecutive years on pubertal status. Latent growth curve modeling revealed gender differences in levels and developmental trends. Gender differences in perspective taking emerged during adolescence, with girls' increases being steeper than those of the boys. Girls also showed higher levels of empathic concern than did boys. Whereas girls' empathic concern remained stable across adolescence, boys showed a decrease from early to middle adolescence with a rebound to the initial level thereafter. Boys who were physically more mature also reported lower empathic concern than did their less physically developed peers. The current study supports theoretical notions that perspective taking develops during adolescence as a result of cognitive development. Moreover, the results suggest that pubertal maturation plays a role in boys' development of empathic concern.