Project outline:
This project looks at empathy in young children aged 3–5 years and how it may be related to the empathy of the adults around them, such as caregivers and teachers. Empathy is the ability to understand how someone else is feeling, feel concern for them, and sometimes act in a caring way. The study focuses on how empathy develops in socio-cultural contexts and daily relationships. By examining children's social environments to look at empathy development in context, this project contributes to a broader research programme. It is supported by my supervisor and her research team, who have extensive experience in developmental empathy research, ensuring that the project is ambitious but feasible.
Who and how?
Participants will be caregivers and teachers of 3-5 year old children attending nursery or school in Durham. Participants will be recruited through opportunity and volunteer sampling by emailing nurseries and inviting staff and caregivers to take part, as well as through my supervisor. Caregivers will receive an information sheet and consent form and, once consent is given, will complete two questionnaires: the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) about their own empathy, and the parent-report Empathy Questionnaire (EmQue) about their child. The EmQue is widely used, reliable and appropriate for this age group, as young children cannot yet accurately report their own feelings. Teachers will also complete consent forms and the QCAE. Using both caregivers and teachers allows the study to collect information from multiple adult perspectives.
The focus:
With permission, brief, non-intrusive observations of children's everyday behaviour will be conducted using a checklist focussing on three key parts of empathy:
1. Affective: emotional reactions e.g. getting upset when another child cries
2. Cognitive: understanding feelings e.g. knowing why someone is sad
3. Behavioural: actions e.g. offering comfort or getting help
Timeline:
Week 1: Literature review.
Weeks 2-3: Data collection.
Weeks 4-5: Analysis of data.
Week 6: Report write up.
This ensures that data collection is complete before UK summer holidays begin.