THE RELATIONS OF CHILDRENS DISPOSITIONAL EMPATHY-RELATED RESPONDING TO THEIR EMOTIONALITY, REGULATION, AND SOCIAL FUNCTIONING

The relations of kindergartners' to 2nd graders' dispositional sympath y to individual differences in emotionality, regulation, and social fu nctioning were examined. Sympathy was assessed with teacher- and self- reports; contemporaneously and 2 years earlier, parents and teachers r eported on children's emotionality, regulation, and social functioning . Social functioning also was assessed with peer evaluations and child ren's enacted puppet behavior, and negative arousability-personal dist ress was assessed with physiological responses. In general, sympathy w as associated with relatively high levels of regulation, teacher-repor ted positive emotionality and general emotional intensity, and especia lly for boys, high social functioning and low levels of negative emoti onality, including physiological reactivity to a distress stimulus. Va gal tone was positively related to boys' self-reported sympathy, where as the pattern was reversed for girls.