The Caring Child provides the most current account of our understanding of the motivations behind prosocial behaviors and how these motives develop and are elicited. Eisenberg broadens our concept of the moral potential of children and shifts the focus from censoring antisocial behaviors to the active promotion of kindness and caring in children.

Anecdotes and the insights gained through study combine to probe the philosophical thought of children and the ways children blend reasoning and curiosity to deal with problems concerning knowledge, value, and existence.