The current study aimed to (i) examine associations across features of affective and cognitive empathy, and (ii) explore their independent role for children's peer relationships at the transition to school. Affective empathy was measured using both observations of children's facial affect during an empathy-eliciting event and dispositional affective empathy to peer distress via teacher report. Cognitive empathy was measured using an index of children's proclivity to engage in perspective taking when witnessing the distress of another. Children's theory of mind was also assessed given close links with cognitive empathy. Participants were 114 Australian children (M_age = 67 months, SD = 5 months) assessed across two sessions during their first year of formal schooling. Findings showed that features of children's affective and cognitive empathy were unrelated, but both showed independent associations with children's positive peer relationships (assessed via peer-reported social preference and teacher-rated peer social maturity). The current study provides support for the delineation between features of affective and cognitive empathy in early school-age children, and the importance of understanding both affective and cognitive empathy for children's peer relationships at the transition to school. These findings have implications how we understand both the nature of empathy in childhood and the role it plays in supporting children's positive peer relationships.

中文翻译：

---

检查向学校过渡期间情感同理心、认知同理心和同伴关系之间的联系

目前的研究旨在（i）检查情感和认知同理心特征之间的关联，以及（ii）探索它们在儿童过渡到学校的同伴关系中的独立作用。情感同理心是通过观察儿童在同理心引发事件中的面部表情以及通过教师报告对同伴困扰的性格情感同理心来测量的。认知同理心是通过儿童在目睹他人痛苦时进行换位思考的倾向指数来衡量的。鉴于与认知共情的密切联系，还对儿童的心理理论进行了评估。参与者是 114 名澳大利亚儿童（M_年龄 = 67 个月，SD  = 5 个月），在正规学校教育的第一年通过两次课程进行评估。研究结果表明，儿童的情感和认知同理心的特征并不相关，但两者都显示出与儿童积极的同伴关系的独立关联（通过同伴报告的社会偏好和教师评价的同伴社会成熟度进行评估）。目前的研究为学龄早期儿童的情感和认知同理心特征之间的划分提供了支持，以及理解情感和认知同理心对于儿童在向学校过渡期间的同伴关系的重要性。这些发现对我们如何理解童年同理心的本质及其在支持儿童积极的同伴关系方面所发挥的作用具有重要意义。