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Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1026//0049-8637.35.1.2

Zusammenfassung. Die vorliegende Studie befaßt sich mit der Frage nach dem Zusammenhang zwischen mütterlicher Feinfühligkeit und der Entwicklung von Mitgefühl (Empathie) sowie prosozialem Verhalten und geht von der Bindungstheorie aus. Insgesamt wurden 46 Mutter-Tochter-Paare quer- und längsschnittlich zu zwei beziehungsweise drei Messzeitpunkten untersucht. Zur Erfassung der mütterlichen Feinfühligkeit wurden alle Mutter-Tochter-Paare jeweils in einer etwa halbstündigen Interaktionssituation videografiert. Kurze Zeit später wurde das emotionale und prosoziale Verhalten jeden Kindes in einer standardisierten, Mitgefühl auslösenden Interaktionssituation beobachtet. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, dass bei den 2-jährigen Mädchen ein tendenziell positiver Zusammenhang zwischen der mütterlichen Feinfühligkeit und dem prosozialen Verhalten des Kindes bestand. Bei den 2-Jährigen ergab sich zudem ein signifikant negativer Zusammenhang mit dem Distress des Kindes. Für die Altersgruppe der 3- und 5-jährigen Mädchen ergaben sich keine signifikanten Zusammenhänge. Die Ergebnisse zu den Längsschnitt-Teilstichproben der 5-Jährigen machten den positiven Einfluß der Feinfühligkeit von Müttern zweijähriger Kinder auf deren sozio-emotionale Entwicklung drei Jahre später deutlich. Es wird diskutiert, ob sich bestimmte Beziehungserfahrungen zu bestimmten Entwicklungszeitpunkten für eine begrenzte Zeit auf bestimmte psychische Funktionsbereiche auswirken.


Maternal responsiveness and the development of sympathic-prosocial behavior in preschool children - an observational study

Abstract. This study deals with the question of the relation between a mother’s responsiveness and the development of sympathy (empathy) as well as prosocial behavior in childhood starting from an attachment theoretical background. Altogether, 46 pairs of mothers and their daughters were examined cross-sectionally and longitudinally at two respectively three points of measurement. In order to assess mothers’ responsiveness, each mother-daughter pair participated in a videotaped interaction situation for about half an hour. Furthermore, each child was observed in a standardized interaction situation with respect to emotional and prosocial reactions. The results showed that for the 2-year old girls, the mothers’ responsiveness tended to be positively related to the prosocial behavior of the child and negatively related to the distress of the child. There were no significant results for the 3- and the 5-year old girls. The results for the longitudinal samples of the 5-year-olds clearly showed the positive influence of mothers’ responsiveness when the children were 2 years old on their socio-emotional development 3 years later. It is discussed whether specific experiences exert an influence only at specific times in development, and on specific psychological functions for a limited time.

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