Scripts and variables from 'Is leisure-time reading related to empathy and social skills in 8- to 10-year-old children?' (BJDP, 2026)

In a study undertaken at a single time point, we examined children’s leisure reading and self-reported prosocial behaviour, and whether the relation between them was mediated by affective or cognitive empathy or by theory of mind.

We tested 113 English-speaking children aged 8 to 10 years from a UK primary school. Analyses showed that reading and prosocial behaviour are related, and that the relation was partly explained by variance shared with empathy, particularly affective rather than cognitive empathy. Future work focusing on causal aspects of these relations should provide further guidance on the practical implications of these results.<br><br><b>Description of files:</b></p><p><br></p><ul><li>csv data file containing all raw data and derived measures collected in the study that led to the BJDP Paper "Is leisure-time reading related to empathy and social skills in 8- to 10-year-old children?"<br></li><li>List of variables in the csv data file and explanation of them<br></li><li>R Script for mediation analyses reported in BJDP Paper "Is leisure-time reading related to empathy and social skills in 8- to 10-year-old children?"<br></li><li>R Script for comparison of correlations reported in BJDP Paper "Is leisure-time reading related to empathy and social skills in 8- to 10-year-old children?"</li></ul><p></p>