Ricerc@Sapienza

We investigated the relations between anticipation of sadness for excluded peers, sympathy, and prosocial behavior in a sample of 127 Italian preschoolers (Mage= 4.84 years, SD = 0.85). Children attributed emotions to hypothetical excluded peers who exhibited withdrawn versus aggressive behavior, and these attributions were coded for the presence and intensity of sadness. Teachers rated children’s sympathy and prosocial behavior via questionnaire. In general, children attributed more sadness to the withdrawn excluded peer than the aggressive excluded peer.

Although previous research on peer victimization has focused on school-aged children and adolescents, interest in peer victimization in preschool children has significantly grown in recent decades. The present study examined the role of temperament traits and social functioning in children’s peer victimization, taking into account the moderating effects of gender, immigrant status, and sympathy. Participants were 284 preschool children (141 girl, 143 boy) between the ages of 30 and 76 months (Mmonths = 57.21, SD = 10.49).

Although sympathy is a powerful other-focused motivation, not all individuals will experience sympathy when it is appropriate. Immigrants, as a disadvantaged out-group, are especially in need of sympathy and, given the tensions of the immigration debate, are at-risk for low sympathy. Indeed, past research has found that sympathy is less likely to be experienced toward disliked out-groups.

We assessed the extent to which feelings of sympathy and aggressive behaviors codeveloped from 6 to 12 years of age in a representative sample of Swiss children (N = 1,273). Caregivers and teachers reported children's sympathy and overt aggression in 3-year intervals. Second-order latent curve models indicated general mean-level declines in sympathy and overt aggression over time, although the decline in sympathy was relatively small. Importantly, both trajectories were characterized by significant interindividual variability.

Nel quadro di una lettura sentimentalista dell’etica della cura (da quella di A. Baier a quella di M. Slote), lettura che insiste sulla natura sentimentale e riflessiva della morale e indica nella simpatia e nell’immaginazione i pilastri del sentimento morale, ma anche a partire da alcune riflessioni sviluppate nella recente letteratura femminista e post-femminista riguardo alla difficoltà di dare conto di sé e degli altri (come ad es. in J. Butler), di vedere i bisogni propri e altrui (o di avere una voce per esprimerli), riflessioni di cui trovo una eco nella produzione recente di C.