The main purpose in this research was to explore empathy, prosocial behaviour and self-regulation of students who are trained to work in nursery and kindergarten. It can be a predictor of how well they have developed competencies of empathizing with people in their environment, recognizing and understanding other people’s emotions, making moral judgments and actions and regulation of their own emotions and behaviour. The research was conducted on a sample of 58 university students. Although not in all dimensions, students showed higher developed empathy, and moderately developed prosocial behaviour and self-regulation. There is, also, a significant positive correlation between certain dimensions of these competences. Being a nursery and kindergarten teacher is a very challenging profession. The teachers that are trying to be successful in their work, in addition to being focused on the educational aspect of child development, also need to be very aware of themselves, their emotional states and capacities, communication skills with children, parents and colleagues at work and the ways to set boundaries in children's behaviour. This necessarily requires constant professional development and constant work on themselves. By working on themselves and enhancing the development of the own abilities, they will influence the positive growth and development of children's socio-emotional competences.