Empathic Expressions among Three-Year-Olds in Play and Interaction in ECEC Institutions in Norway: Bodily Empathic Expressions Purposed for Peers' Well-Being and Confirming Relationships

The purpose is to contribute new knowledge through descriptions of how three-year-olds express self-initiated empathy with their peers. This is based on an understanding that children’s empathy-related responses are a result of their emotional understanding and concern for others in the context of playful interactions. The aim of the study is to answer the following research question: How do 3-year-old children express empathy towards each other in their interactions?

The empirical findings show that children’s empathy-related responses are largely expressed as intersubjective expressions (face and body), contextually adapted and aimed at accommodating their peers’ feelings and confirming their relationship. The findings indicate that children’s natural empathy appears to be implicit behaviour, a form of care and curiosity about the feelings of others, rather than an explicitly prosocial action. Empathy then becomes a medium that enables children’s understanding of each other and is a prerequisite for maintaining reciprocity in play and interactions. The study emphasises the incorporated unconscious intersubjective knowledge as an inherent and underlying empathetic interest in and curiosity about the feelings of others, which the author believes must be acknowledged as an important basis for supporting children’s empathetic development.

The data collection consisted of observations, video observations and field notes. The researcher observed children playing freely inside and outside in 3 different kindergartens for a period of 6 months. A total of 16 children aged 2.6-3.11 years were observed. The source data consists of 60 hours of observations and field notes.

Furthermore, the collected data formed the basis for an inductive analysis that used an interpretive phenomenological analysis method as a framework.

Nergaard, K. (2019). "Empathic Expressions among Three-Year-Olds in Play and Interaction in ECEC Institutions in Norway: Bodily Empathic Expressions Purposed for Peers' Well-Being and Confirming Relationships". Early Child Development and Care, 189(9):1444-1456.