In this Israel Science Foundation (ISF) funded study, we are following a group of children and families since they were about one year old to characterize the developmental trajectories of empathy in a typically developing population. We are particularly interested in the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on infants' socio-emotional development and families' coping strategies. Following the onset of the Iron Swords war we are also examining it's effects on children's and families coping and social functioning.

The study includes an in-depth measurement of emotional and cognitive empathy using multiple measures, including observations of behavior and eye-tracking. In addition, we are interested in investigating oxytocin and cortisol as possible biological correlates of empathy development. The hormones are measured non-evasively in hair.