Guilt and Shame in Middle Childhood: Relationships with Empathic Responsiveness.

In previous research, children's empathy has been positively related to guilt and unrelated to shame. In the present study, it was predicted that guilt and empathy would have a curvilinear relationship, while shame and empathy were expected to be inversely related. Participating were 115 children: somewhat less than half were ages 8-9 years, while the remainder were 11-12 years old. Children completed the Test of Self-Conscious Affect--Children's Version (Tangney, Wagner, Burggraf, Gramzow, and Fletcher, 1990) and the Empathy Continuum (Strayer, 1993). Results were found to be conditional upon children's age and sex. Guilt and empathy were negat-_,,'efy related in younger boys; in all other groups guilt and empathy were positively related. Shame and empathy were negatively related in younger girls, and positively related in all other groups. Results suggested that guilt and shame undergo notable change in middle childhood. (Contains 11 references.) (Author/EV) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) '1/47(This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. Guilt and shame in middle childhood: Relationships with empathic responsiveness Sara Fraser & Janet Strayer Simon Fraser University PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY SO,Nr0. V\--OS.SC TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Poster session presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Washington, DC (April, 1997). 0 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Abstract In previous research, children's empathy was positively related to guilt and unrelated to shame. In the present study, it was predicted that guilt and empathy would have a curvilinear relationship while shame and empathy were expected to be inversely related. One-hundred and fifteen children participated: 24 8-9 year old boys, 24 8-9 year old girls, 38 11-12 year old boys, and 25 11-12 year old girls. Children completed the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-Children's version (Tangney, Wagner, Burggraf, Gramzow, & Fletcher, 1990), and the Empathy Continuum (Strayer, 1993). Present results were found to be conditional upon children's age and sex. Guilt and empathy were negatively related in younger boys; in all other groups guilt and empathy were positively related. Shame and empathy were negatively related in younger girls, and positively related in all other groups. Present results suggest that guilt and shame undergo notable change in middle childhood.In previous research, children's empathy was positively related to guilt and unrelated to shame. In the present study, it was predicted that guilt and empathy would have a curvilinear relationship while shame and empathy were expected to be inversely related. One-hundred and fifteen children participated: 24 8-9 year old boys, 24 8-9 year old girls, 38 11-12 year old boys, and 25 11-12 year old girls. Children completed the Test of Self-Conscious Affect-Children's version (Tangney, Wagner, Burggraf, Gramzow, & Fletcher, 1990), and the Empathy Continuum (Strayer, 1993). Present results were found to be conditional upon children's age and sex. Guilt and empathy were negatively related in younger boys; in all other groups guilt and empathy were positively related. Shame and empathy were negatively related in younger girls, and positively related in all other groups. Present results suggest that guilt and shame undergo notable change in middle childhood. 3 BEST COPY AVAILABLE Introduction 4 Guilt and shame operate at different levels of self-evaluation (Lewis, 1971; Tangney, 1995): GUILT focuses on one's ACTIONS SHAME focuses on the SELF -, This differential foci underlies proposed differences in how guilt and shame relate to empathy: guilt allows for a greater other-oriented, empathic stance shame engenders intense selffocus which should interfere with empathy ) Research with children (Tangnev, Burggraf, Wagner, Gramzow, & Fletcher, 1991): guilt showed positive relationships with other-oriented empathy shame appeared unrelated to children's empathy Hypotheses 1) Children's guilt scores were predicted to show a curvilinear relationship to empathy scores: children with moderate guilt scores should show higher empathy scores children with extreme guilt scores (either high or low) should show lower empathy scores 2) Children's shame scores were predicted to show an inverse, linear relationship with scores on a measure of empathic responsiveness. 3) Examination of age and gender effects were exploratory. Method Subjects: 24 8-9 year old boys (M=107.1 months) 24 8-9 year old girls (M=107.1 months) 38 11-12 year old boys (M=145.9 months) 25 11-12 year old girls (M=141.9 months) Measures: 1) The Test of Self-Conscious Affect Children's Version (Tangney, Wagner, Burggraf, Gramzow, & Fletcher, 1990) 2) The Empathy Continuum (Strayer, 1993) Results Summary of Correlations between Guilt, Shame, and Empathy in the 4 Age X Gender Groups. GUILT SHAME EMPATHY Young Boys . 15 +. 24 Young Girls +. 18 . 12 Older Boys +. 24 +. 11 Older Girls +. 25 +. 49* *p<. 05 As can be seen above, the pattern of relationships among guilt, shame and empathy was different depending upon age and gender. Therefore, exploratory analyses, using principal components analytic procedures, were conducted in order to explore the relationships among the variables within Age X Gender groups. The results BEST COPY AVAILABLE 5 of these principal component analyses, illustrating the relationships among the variables in each of the Age X Gender groups, can seen in Figures One through to Four. Additionally, as has been seen in previous research using the TOSCA-C, guilt and shame scores showed significant, positive correlations overall, and within Age (younger, older) and Gender (boys, girls) groups.