Running Head: Storytelling and Empathy The Effects of Storytelling on Expressions of Empathy in Preschool Aged Children Sarah E. Shafer Earlham College Abstract The present study examined affective and cognitive empathy in preschool children. Seventeen children, ages three to five years, were given The Young Children's Empathy Measure to determine their understanding of empathy. Participants were then read a children's story and given the empathy measure again, to see if they expressed more empathy after …showed first 75 words of 2566 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2566 total…allowed." How does this child feel? How do you feel about this? 4. Happiness: "A child is going to its most favorite park to play." How does this child feel? How do you feel about this? Scoring: 4 = exact match to intended emotion 3 = similar emotion 2 = some emotion 1 = nonemotional response 0 = no emotion Table 1 Mean Empathy Scores for Questionnaire Items ____________________________________________________________ Baseline Story Emotion M SD M SD ____________________________________________________________ Sadness Cognitive 3.5294 1.0073 3.7059 .5879 Affective 3.1765 1.0146 3.7059 .7717 Fear Cognitive 3.4118 .5073 3.3529 .7859 Affective 3.1176 .8575 .31765 .9510 Anger Cognitive 3.0588 .5557 3.4706 .5145 Affective 2.9412 .8269 2.9412 .9963 Happiness Cognitive 3.7059 .6860 3.6471 .7859 Affective 3.7059 .6860 3.4118 3.4706 ____________________________________________________________