Contemporaneous and longitudinal relations of dispositional sympathy to emotionality, regulation, and social functioning

Individual differences in 10-through 12-year-olds' sympathetic tendencies were examined in relation to their regulation, negative emotionality, and social functioning contemporaneously as well as 2, 4, and 6 years earlier. Information was obtained for 33 girls and 31 boys from the school and home context. In general, adults' (teachers and parents) reports of young adolescents' sympathetic tendencies were associated with high regulatory abilities, low negative emotionality, and constructive social behaviors contemporaneously and, to some degree, 2, 4, and 6 years previously. Furthermore, in regression analyses, regulatory abilities during early adolescence as well as 2 years earlier uniquely predicted young adolescents'sympathetic tendencies after controlling for the effects of negative emotionality. Although findings were fairly similar across contexts, the majority of findings at school were for girls, whereas the pattern of findings at home was somewhat more consistent for boys than for girls.