Parenting Journal · Volume 1 · Issue 1 · Licensed source edition
The neural development of empathy is sensitive to caregiving and early trauma
Originally published 2019-04-23 · Nature Communications
Nature Publishing Group · DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-09927-y ↗
Editorial reading guide · Kindness
How do caregiving, temperament and adversity relate to children’s developing empathy?
Relates observed caregiver–child synchrony to the development of empathy in a context that also includes temperament and adversity. It broadens Kindness beyond individual choice by attending to the conditions in which families live.
Who was studied?
Israeli children followed across childhood; the neuroimaging sample included children exposed to chronic war-related adversity and a comparison group.
Age / stage: Early childhood through preadolescence
Read with three questions
- How was mother–child synchrony observed across childhood?
- Which participants completed the preadolescent brain-imaging assessment?
- How were chronic adversity and child reactivity considered together?
Keep the limits in view
Observational developmental and brain-imaging associations are not an intervention test. Attrition, the specific adversity context and a limited imaging sample constrain causal and population-wide claims.
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Original authorship, publication date, journal and DOI are preserved. This issue’s TRICK placement and reading questions are editorial additions, not claims made by the original authors.
Jonathan Levy; Abraham Goldstein; Ruth Feldman (2019). The neural development of empathy is sensitive to caregiving and early trauma Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09927-y
Permissions checked against the saved article notice; repository publication notices screened 2026-11-04. This is not a new peer-review decision. The source authors and publishers are not represented as endorsing this issue.