# Empathy Development in Infancy and Adolescence: The Role of Attachment

> **NIH NIH F32** · UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA · 2020 · $67,254

## Abstract

Research Project: The capacity to empathize is a core component of social-emotional competence (CASEL,
2019). Across development, empathy is linked to beneficial social outcomes, whereas the lack of empathy is
implicated in externalizing problems in childhood, bullying in adolescence, and child abuse in adulthood
(Burke, 2001; Eisenberg, 2017; van Noorden, Haselager, Cillessen, & Bukowski, 2015). From a health
perspective, identifying factors that support empathy is critical for understanding and nurturing positive social
functioning across the life span. One factor thought to support the development of empathy is parent-child
attachment. The objective of the proposed project is to address key gaps in the empathy literature by
examining the contribution of attachment to empathy during two sensitive periods of development: infancy and
adolescence. Study 1 tests whether infant attachment at 12 months predicts empathy at 18 months (Aim 1)
and examines two novel mediators of this link, grounded in attachment theory: internal working models and
neurocognitive mechanisms (Aim 2). Participants will include 120 infants and their caregivers. Caregivers will
complete the widely used Attachment Q-Sort (Waters & Deane, 1985); six months later, infants’ observed
responses to two naturalistic simulations of distress (an experimenter’s physical pain and sadness) will be
coded for empathy. Internal working models will be measured using an innovative visual habituation paradigm
that taps infants’ expectations of caregiver responsiveness (Johnson et al., 2010), and infants’ neural and
attentional responses to emotion will be recorded using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and eye-
tracking while viewing emotional faces. Study 2 uses pre-existing data from a longitudinal study to test whether
attachment predicts empathy development across adolescence. Participants include 185 adolescents who
completed the gold standard Adult Attachment Interview (George, Kaplan, & Main, 1996) at age 14 and
engaged in a problem-solving discussion with a peer at ages 14, 15, 16, and 17; empathy will be coded from
these observed peer interactions. The proposed project brings an attachment theoretical perspective to
understanding empathy development, sheds light on the mechanisms by which parenting contributes to
empathy during sensitive periods of development, and provides important information about the relationship
factors contributing to empathy that can inform future research and intervention efforts.
Training Plan and Environment: Post-doctoral training will help launch PI Stern’s career as a developmental
scientist invested in understanding how social relationships shape child and adolescent outcomes. The
resource-rich context of University of Virginia provides extensive opportunities for coursework and professional
development to build new skills for conducting cutting-edge neurobiological and behavioral research. The
combined mentorship of three experts in infant ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9992477
- **Project number:** 1F32HD102119-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Jessica A Stern
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $67,254
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9992477

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9992477, Empathy Development in Infancy and Adolescence: The Role of Attachment (1F32HD102119-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9992477. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*