Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41454021›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2025

Sociodemographic variation and childhood predictors of showing love and care for others in 22 countries.

Matthew T Lee, Renae Wilkinson, Katelyn N G Long, Brendan W Case, James L Ritchie-Dunham, Matt Bradshaw, R Noah Padgett, Byron R Johnson, Tyler J VanderWeele

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Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Matthew T Lee *Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA. matthew_t_lee@baylor.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3652-280X
Renae Wilkinson *Human Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Katelyn N G LongHuman Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Brendan W CaseHuman Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
James L Ritchie-DunhamHuman Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Matt BradshawInstitute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA.
R Noah PadgettHuman Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Byron R Johnson *Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA.
Tyler J VanderWeele *Human Flourishing Program, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Funding

Fetzer Institute 4354John Templeton Foundation 61665Templeton Religion Trust 1308TWCF 0605
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Showing love and care for other people is a vital aspect of human relationships. However, little is known about how levels of love/care expression differ across cultures and across sociodemographic groups within those different cultures, or about the potential childhood antecedents that are associated with love/care expression in adulthood. Based on nationally-representative data from 22 countries in six continents in the Global Flourishing Study (N = 202,898), we present ordered means of love/care expression across countries, observe its distributions across key sociodemographic characteristics, and evaluate the strength of its childhood predictors (with E-values as a robustness check), revealing the extent to which the distributions and associations are uniform throughout the world or differ by country. The mean levels of love/care expression (scaled 0-10) ranged from 9.05 in the Philippines to 5.96 in Japan and tended to be higher in countries in the Global South. Based on a random effects meta-analysis of means and a multivariate regression analysis of childhood predictors, we find evidence of both universal and country-specific influences. Age cohort, gender, self-rated health, and religious service attendance were the strongest childhood predictors. These findings enhance our understanding of the country-specific variations in love/care expression and early-life predictors of adult outcomes, providing a foundation for future investigations into sociocultural influences that might shape love/care expression.

Indexed as

LoveAdolescentAdultChildFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedSociodemographic FactorsSocioeconomic FactorsYoung AdultCareChildhood experiencesCross-nationalGlobal Flourishing StudyLoveWell-being

Identifiers

PMID41454021
PMCPMC12804932

What Socratic holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.