Do Empathy and Theory of Mind Go Hand-in-Hand?: Predicting Preschoolers’ Prosocial Behavior from Their Social Understanding Profiles

Abstract

Objectives: While studies have explored various subtypes of children’s antisocial behavior, there has been a lacuna in identifying the heterogeneity underlying children’s prosocial behaviors are lacking in comparison. Our study aimed to derive the subtypes of children based on the theory of mind (ToM) and empathy, and compare the levels of prosocial behavior between the subtypes.Methods: We adopted latent profile analysis (LPA) to explore the heterogeneity in children’s social understanding that underlies prosocial behaviors. A total of 230 preschoolers aged 5-6 years (114 girls, 116 boys) participated in the study. An online questionnaire survey was answered by their mothers to assess children’s prosocial behavior, empathy, and ToM.Results: The LPA revealed that preschoolers may be distinguished into four different profiles: a “moderate social understanding-balanced group (i.e., the scores of empathy and ToM were at similar levels)”; a “low social understanding-ToM higher group (i.e., ToM scores were higher than empathy scores)”; a “low social understanding-emoathy higher group”; and a “high social understanding-ToM higher group.” The “High social understanding-ToM higher” was the most prosocial group and the “low social understanding-ToM higher” was the least prosocial group.Conclusion: The findings reveal the heterogeneity of preschoolers’ social understanding profiles. While both components of social understanding may facilitate children’s development of prosocial behavior, the ability to empathize may compensate for the lack of ability to understand the ToM.