Abstract
While empathy has been associated with depressive symptoms, few longitudinal studies have confirmed the causal relationship between empathy and depressive symptoms. The current study employed a three-wave and one-year longitudinal follow-up study to investigate the causality between empathy and depression symptoms, focusing primarily on emerging adults due to the prevalence of depressive symptoms in this age group. Random intercept cross-lagged panel analysis (N = 1028) results found that affective empathy at T1 and T2 positively predicted depressive symptoms at T2 and T3, and only depressive symptoms at T2 positively predicted affective empathy at T3. These results suggested that affective empathy is indeed a risk factor for depression; it supported both the vulnerability and scar models. Further research endeavors should concentrate on exploring the developmental aspects of affective empathy, facilitating individuals in effectively regulating emotional resonance and mitigating potential adverse effects arising from empathetic sharing of negative emotions with others.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
References
Arnett, J. J. (2000). Emerging adulthood. A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. American Psychologist, 55(5), 469–480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.5.469.
Bennik, E. C., Jeronimus, B. F., & Aan Het Rot, M. (2019). The relation between empathy and depressive symptoms in a Dutch population sample. Journal of Affective Disorders, 242, 48–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.08.008
Blodgett, J. M., Lachance, C. C., Stubbs, B., Co, M., Wu, Y. Z., Prina, M., & Cosco, T. D. (2021). A systematic review of the latent structure of the Center for epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) amongst adolescents. Bmc Psychiatry, 21, 197. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-021-03206-1.
Calandri, E., Graziano, F., Testa, S., Cattelino, E., & Begotti, T. (2019). Empathy and depression among early adolescents: The moderating role of parental support. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 1447. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01447.
Chikovani, G., Babuadze, L., Iashvili, N., Gvalia, T., & Surguladze, S. (2015). Empathy costs: Negative emotional bias in high empathisers. Psychiatry Research, 229(1–2), 340–346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2015.07.001.
Cui, D., Liu, L., & Li, Y. (2022). Association between children’s empathy and depression: The moderating role of social preference. Child Psychiatry & Human Development. 34982305. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-021-01312-5.
Cui, D., Liu, L., & Li, Y. (2023). Association between children’s empathy and depression: The moderating role of social preference. Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 54(3), 857–869. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-021-01312-5
Cusi, A. M., Macqueen, G. M., Spreng, R. N., & McKinnon, M. C. (2011). Altered empathic responding in major depressive disorder: Relation to symptom severity, illness burden, and psychosocial outcome. Psychiatry Research, 188(2), 231–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2011.04.013.
Decety, J., & Meyer, M. (2008). From emotion resonance to empathic understanding: A social developmental neuroscience account. Development & Psychopathology, 20(4), 1053–1080. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579408000503.
Decety, J., & Svetlova, M. (2012). Putting together phylogenetic and ontogenetic perspectives on empathy. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 2(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2011.05.003.
de Waal, F. B. M., & Preston, S. D. (2017). Mammalian empathy: Behavioural manifestations and neural basis. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 18(8), 498–509. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2017.72.
Fung, A. L. C., Gerstein, L. H., Chan, Y., & Engebretson, J. (2013). Relationship of aggression to anxiety, depression, anger, and empathy in Hong Kong. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(3), 821–831. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-013-9892-1.
Gambin, M., & Sharp, C. (2018). The relations between empathy, guilt, shame and depression in inpatient adolescents. Journal of Affective Disorders, 241, 381–387. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.08.068.
Gawronski, I., & Privette, G. (1997). Empathy and reactive depression. Psychological Reports, 80(3), 1043–1049. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1997.80.3.1043.
Green, L. M., Missotten, L., Tone, E. B., & Luyckx, K. (2018). Empathy, depressive symptoms, and self-esteem in adolescence: The moderating role of the mother–adolescent relationship. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27, 3964–3974. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-018-1216-z.
Hamaker, E., Kuiper, R., & Grasman, R. (2015). A critique of the cross-lagged panel model. Psychological Methods, 20(1), 102–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038889.
Hu, L. t., & Bentler, P. M. (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118
Karanikola, M. N. K., Zartaloudi, A., Nystazaki, M., Zavrou, R., & Papathanassoglou, E. D. E. (2020). Is there any association among depressive symptoms, job satisfaction and self-assessed empathy? A correlational study in greek psychiatric/mental health nurses. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 34(4), 230–236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2020.04.006.
Klein, D. N., Kotov, R., & Bufferd, S. J. (2011). Personality and depression: Explanatory models and review of the evidence. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 7, 269–295. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032210-104540.
Knight, L. K., Stoica, T., Fogleman, N. D., & Depue, B. E. (2019). Convergent neural correlates of empathy and anxiety during socioemotional processing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 13, 94. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2019.00094.
López-Pérez, B., Carrera, P., Ambrona, T., & Oceja, L. (2014). Testing the qualitative differences between empathy and personal distress: Measuring core affect and self-orientation. The Social Science Journal, 51(4), 676–680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2014.08.001.
Melchers, M., Montag, C., Markett, S., & Reuter, M. (2014). Assessment of empathy via self-report and behavioural paradigms: Data on convergent and discriminant validity. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 20(2), 157–171. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2014.991781.
Neumann, I. D., & Landgraf, R. (2012). Balance of brain oxytocin and vasopressin: Implications for anxiety, depression, and social behaviors. Trends in Neurosciences, 35(11), 649–659. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2012.08.004.
O’Connor, L. E., Berry, J. W., Weiss, J., & Gilbert, P. (2002). Guilt, fear, submission, and empathy in depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 71(1), 19–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0165-0327(01)00408-6.
Orth, U., Clark, D. A., Donnellan, M. B., & Robins, R. W. (2021). Testing prospective effects in longitudinal research: Comparing seven competing cross-lagged models. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 120(4), 1013–1034. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000358
Park, C., Rosenblat, J. D., Brietzke, E., Pan, Z., Lee, Y., Cao, B., & McIntyre, R. S. (2019). Stress, epigenetics and depression: A systematic review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 102, 139–152. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.04.010.
Preston, S. D., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2002). Empathy? Its ultimate and proximate bases. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 25, 1–72. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x02000018
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: A self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1(3), 385–401. https://doi.org/10.1177/014662167700100306.
Ressler, K. J., & Mayberg, H. S. (2007). Targeting abnormal neural circuits in mood and anxiety disorders: From the laboratory to the clinic. Nature Neuroscience, 10(9), 1116–1124. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1944.
Rohde, P., Lewinsohn, P. M., & Seeley, J. R. (1990). Are people changed by the experience of having an episode of depression? A further test of the scar hypothesis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99(3), 264–271. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.99.3.264.
Smith, R. L. (2015). Adolescents’ emotional engagement in friends’ problems and joys: Associations of empathetic distress and empathetic joy with friendship quality, depression, and anxiety. Journal of Adolescence, 45, 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2015.08.020.
Steiger, A. E., Fend, H. A., & Allemand, M. (2015). Testing the vulnerability and scar models of self-esteem and depressive symptoms from adolescence to middle adulthood and across generations. Developmental Psychology, 51(2), 236–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038478.
Thoma, P., Zalewski, I., von Reventlow, H. G., Norra, C., Juckel, G., & Daum, I. (2011). Cognitive and affective empathy in depression linked to executive control. Psychiatry Research, 189(3), 373–378. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2011.07.030.
Thompson, N. M., van Reekum, C. M., & Chakrabarti, B. (2021). Cognitive and affective empathy relate differentially to emotion regulation. Affective Science, 3, 118–134. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ckq26.
Tone, E. B., & Tully, E. C. (2014). Empathy as a risky strength: A multilevel examination of empathy and risk for internalizing disorders. Development and Psychopathology, 26(4), 1547–1565. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579414001199.
Vrshek-Schallhorn, S., Stroud, C. B., Mineka, S., Hammen, C., Zinbarg, R. E., Wolitzky-Taylor, K., & Craske, M. G. (2015). Chronic and episodic interpersonal stress as statistically unique predictors of depression in two samples of emerging adults. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 124(4), 918–932. https://doi.org/10.1037/abn0000088.
Wang, Y., Wen, Z., Fu, Y., & Zheng, L. (2017). Psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the measure of empathy and sympathy. Personality and Individual Differences, 119, 168–174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.07.019
Werner, L. L. A. A., Van der Graaff, J., Meeus, W. H. J., & Branje, S. J. T. (2016). Depressive symptoms in adolescence: Longitudinal links with maternal empathy and psychological control. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 44(6), 1121–1132. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-015-0106-8.
West, S. G., Finch, J. F., & Curran, P. J. (1995). Structural equation models with nonnormal variables: Problems and remedies. In R. H. Hoyle (Ed.), Structural equation modeling: Concepts, issues and applications (pp. 56–75). SAGE.
Wu, N., Li, Z., & Su, Y. (2012). The association between oxytocin receptor gene polymorphism (OXTR) and trait empathy. Journal of Affective Disorders, 138(3), 468–472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2012.01.009.
Yang, Y., Kong, X., Guo, Z., & Kou, Y. (2021). Can self-compassion promote gratitude and prosocial behavior in adolescents? A 3-year longitudinal study from China. Mindfulness, 12(6), 1377–1386. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-021-01605-9.
Yan, Z., Hong, S., Liu, F., & Su, Y. (2020). A meta-analysis of the relationship between empathy and executive function. Psych Journal, 9(1), 34–43. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.311.
Yan, Z., Pei, M., & Su, Y. (2017). Children’s empathy and their perception and evaluation of facial pain expression: An eye tracking study. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 2284. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02284.
Yan, Z., Zeng, X., Su, J., & Zhang, X. (2021). The dark side of empathy: Meta-analysis evidence of the relationship between empathy and depression. Psych Journal, 10(5), 794–804. https://doi.org/10.1002/pchj.482.
Yan, Z., Zhu, X., Zhou, K., Deng, Q., & Zeng, X. (2022). The mediating role of affective empathy in the relationship between insecure attachment and depressive symptoms among emerging adult. Journal of Adult Development, 29(4), 279–286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-022-09402-x.
Zahn, R., de Oliveira-Souza, R., Bramati, I., Garrido, G., & Moll, J. (2009). Subgenual cingulate activity reflects individual differences in empathic concern. Neuroscience Letters, 457(2), 107–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2009.03.090.
Funding
This work was supported by the National Social Science Found of China (21FYB070).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Authors DDQ, TX, and YZQ designed the study. Author TX, SL, ZX collected the data, undertook the statistical analysis, DDQ, TX and YZQ wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and DDQ, TX, SL, ZX and YZQ revised the manuscript. All authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval
Approval was obtained from the ethics committee of Hunan Normal University.
Consent
Informed consent was obtained from the participants.
Competing interests
The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Ding, D., Tan, X., Sun, L. et al. Does empathy lead to depression? A three-wave random intercept cross-lagged panel analysis in emerging adults. Curr Psychol 43, 10971–10978 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05224-6
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-05224-6