Early maternal touch may encourage sympathy and helping behaviors in adolescence

A study in China found that junior high school students who recall more maternal touch in childhood tend to manifest more prosocial behavior. Attachment to mothers might be a mediator of this relationship. The paper was published in the International Journal of Adolescence and Youth.

Maternal touch refers to physical contact initiated by a mother toward her child, such as holding, cuddling, skin-to-skin contact, or gentle stroking, especially during early development. Although it was long underemphasized in developmental research, recent studies show that maternal touch plays a crucial role not only in infants’ physical growth but also in cognitive, emotional, and social development.

Frequent maternal touch has been linked to better psychomotor development, reduced stress responses, improved emotional regulation, and stronger mother–child bonding. Health organizations now formally recognize its importance, as reflected in recommendations for immediate skin-to-skin contact after birth, particularly for preterm and low-birthweight infants.

Maternal touch is thought to support early attachment formation by providing comfort, safety, and a rewarding relationship experience. Secure attachment, in turn, is associated with greater empathy, emotional stability, and prosocial behavior later in life.

Theoretical models suggest that early tactile experiences may scaffold the development of human prosociality by shaping how children relate to others. Maternal touch also stimulates hormonal and neural processes that support caregiving, breastfeeding, and emotional connection.

Study authors Kuo Zhang and Jinlong Su wanted to explore the links between maternal touch experiences and prosocial behavior. They also wanted to see if the attachment pattern of a person is associated with this link. In their study, these authors decided to focus on adolescents because prosociality becomes relatively stable at that age. Prosociality is a tendency to display voluntary behaviors intended to benefit others, such as helping, sharing, cooperating, and showing empathy.

Study participants were 572 students from a public junior high school in western China. They were between 12 and 16 years of age, with the average being 13.56 years. Approximately 50% of them were boys. 61% of participating students were from rural areas.

Students completed an assessment of maternal touch experiences constructed by the study authors based on existing measures. It consisted of three items: ‘my mother usually held me in her arms when I was a little child’, ‘my mother usually held my hand when I was a little child’, and ‘my mother usually patted me as I fell asleep when I was a little child’.

They also completed assessments of prosocial behavior (the Prosocial Tendencies Measure), empathic concern (which study authors refer to as “sympathy”, using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index”), and mother-child affective attachment (the Experiences in Close Relationships – Relationship Structures Questionnaire).

Results showed that participants who reported more maternal touch in childhood tended to score higher on the prosocial behavior assessment, specifically regarding compliant prosocial behavior. Their attachment with their mother tended to be more secure and they tended to report more empathic concern. Empathic concern is the tendency to experience feelings of compassion, warmth, and concern for others who are distressed or in need.

Study authors tested a statistical model proposing that maternal touch leads to more secure affective attachment (i.e., less attachment anxiety and avoidance), and that this type of attachment, in turn, leads to more compliant prosocial behavior and more empathic concern. Results showed that attachment fully mediated these relationships.

“Our findings provided an initial empirical support for the touch-scaffolded prosociality model and suggested the importance of tactile interactions between mothers and children in daily parenting practice,” the study authors concluded.

The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the importance of maternal touch in early childhood for children’s psychosocial development. However, it should be noted that information about maternal touch in early childhood came from self-reports based on recall in adolescence. This means that recall and reporting bias might have affected the results. Additionally, the design of the study does not allow any causal inferences to be derived from the results.

The paper, “Early maternal touch predicts prosocial behaviour in adolescents: the mediation role of attachment,” was authored by Kuo Zhang and Jinlong Su.