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Decreased empathic sensitivity for distressed infants in neurotic adults: The mediating role of remembered parental rejection

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Abstract

The primary purpose of the present research was to determine whether negative reactions to infant distress in neurotic adults are mediated by representations of same sex parental rejection. Participants were 308 adult males and females who completed questionnaires assessing their personality and their representations of their parents’ care-giving from childhood. Participants also reported their own empathic reactions toward emotionally distressed and non-distressed infants. The present findings revealed that neuroticism significantly predicted a greater recall of parental rejection which, in turn, predicted decreased empathy ratings for distressed infants. In addition, recollections of father rejection mediated the relation between neuroticism and empathy in men, while recollections of maternal rejection mediated the relation between these variables in women.

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Notes

  1. Separate analyses were conducted using ANCOVAs with Neuroticism (scores were grouped into high vs. low based on a median split) and Parental Rejection (scores were grouped into high vs. low based on a median split) as independent variables, empathy for distressed infants as the dependent variable and empathy for non-distressed infants entered as a covariate. The pattern of results specific to the distressed infants remained unchanged for neuroticism (F(1, 297) = 4.31, p = .04) and parental rejection (F(1, 304) = 18.80, p < .001).

  2. A marginal correlation was found between neuroticism and extraversion (r = −.09, p = .058) and neuroticism was positively correlated with state-trait anxiety (r = .33, p < .001). The relationship between neuroticism is less clear. In women, the EETS was positively correlated with neuroticism (r = .21, p < .01) and in men it was negatively correlated with neuroticism (r = −.28, p < .01).

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  1. Department of Psychology, Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne, Neff Hall 380C, 2101 E. Coliseum Blvd., Fort Wayne, IN, 46805, USA

    Brenda L. Lundy & Melissa McFadden Skeel

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Lundy, B.L., Skeel, M.M. Decreased empathic sensitivity for distressed infants in neurotic adults: The mediating role of remembered parental rejection. Motiv Emot 34, 407–417 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11031-010-9186-5

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