The Longitudinal Link Between Empathy and Sharing Behavior Among Children: The Moderating Role of Classroom Norms

ABSTRACT

Empathy, an important psychological trait that influences healthy personality development, has been viewed as a key factor in the process of shaping prosocial behavior. Sharing is among the most common of the various types of prosocial behavior exhibited by children. Therefore, this study examines the predictive role of children's empathy with respect to their sharing behavior and explores the underlying mechanisms through which classroom norms impact this relationship. In this study, peer nominations and questionnaire surveys were used to conduct two follow‐up assessments of 1982 students in grades 3–5, and SPSS 26.0 and HLM 6.0 software were used to support the data analysis. The results are as follows: (1) Positive empathy significantly predicts sharing behavior, whereas negative empathy does not. (2) Descriptive norms neither predict sharing behavior nor moderate the relationship between empathy and sharing behavior. (3) Salient norms also do not predict sharing behavior; however, they do moderate the influence of positive empathy on sharing behavior such that the influence of empathy ability is stronger in groups that exhibit higher levels of salient norms. This study provides important theoretical insights to support future research on the factors that drive empathy‐driven sharing behavior. The current study also has valuable practical implications for efforts to identify ways to promote children's sharing behavior, thus helping educators cultivate children's prosocial behavior in a more targeted and systematic way.