Perceived Parental Empathy and its Impact on the Empathy ofYoung Argentine Adults (Twin and Non-twin Siblings)

Abstract

Various studies indicated the importance of certain environmental and genetic factors in the development of empathy. in the study, both aspects were considered, aiming to analyze the role of perceived parental empathy (maternal and paternal), sex and being a monozygotic twin or not, in the prediction of children's self-perceived empathy. Method: the non-probabilistic sample consisted of 114 argentine adolescents and young adults of both sexes, between 16 and 30 years old. the sample was divided into two groups: (1) 61 monozygotic twins (Meane = 23.49; SD = 4.23), of which 46 were female and 15 male; (2) 53 non-twin siblings (Mean = 23.57; SD = 3.38), of whom 40 were female and 13 male. Results: block regression analysis indicated that perceived parental empathy, sex, and being a monozygotic twin predicted 39% of the variance of empathy. the variables that had the greatest predictive weight on the empathy of the young were maternal empathic joy (β = .38; p = .002), sex (β = .494; p <.001) and being a twin sibling or not (β = .20; p = .029). Conclusions: this study highlighted the importance of positive maternal empathy in the development of children's empathy, as well as the role of sex and being a monozygotic twin or not in the prediction of that variable.