Socialization Processes toward Children and Adolescents for Developing Empathy, Sympathy and Prosocial Behaviors

Abstract

This chapter addresses the socialization processes for the development of empathy, sym- pathy and prosocial behaviors in children and adolescents. Democratic or authoritative socialization practices contribute to prosocial development. Parental support, warmth and sensitivity, parental induction and inductive reasoning, parental demandingness and control have been associated with empathy, sympathy and behavior in children and adolescents. Parental warmth/responsiveness can develop a secure attachment between the parent and the child. Securely attached children tend to be responsive to parental controls and more eager learners and prosocial during the socialization process. Parents may foster behavior in children by modeling and concerning for the needs of others. Parents may induce perspective-taking, empathy and sympathy in their children and adolescents by pointing out the beneficial or harmful consequences of their actions through inductive reasoning and explanations. Parental inductive reasoning and explanations can lead to empathy-based guilt in them by highlighting consequences of the devi- ating behavior in the children and adolescents for the victim. Children and adolescents can attend to and care about parental messages, internalize prosocial values of their parents, socialize to acquire prosocial behavior when parents behave warmly, responsively and supportively and use inductive reasoning and explanations for their children and adolescents in socialization practices.