Interrelationships Among Dependency, Empathy, and Sharing A Preliminary Study

The sharing behavior o f 66 fourth-grade students was observed in two different experimental situations: (a) in the experimenter's presence (visible sharing), and (b) anonymously (invisible sharing). In addition, measures o f empathy and dependency were given to each child. For girls some support was found for a positive relationship between empathy and sharing in both o f the experimental conditions; also, moderate dependency, as measured by peer and teacher ratings, was related to invisible sharing. The correlations found among the variables were quite different for boys. Both empathy and dependency, as measured by the Children's Social Desirability Questionnaire, were negatively related to invisible sharing, and empathy was positively correlated to social desirability scores. Also, as indicated by curvilinear analyses, the interrelationships among these variables for boys were more complex than were suggested by simple linear correlations.