A timely understanding of adolescents’ voluntary service behaviour and its influencing mechanism is of great importance for promoting the sustainable development of voluntary service. This study explores the relationship between contemporary filial piety and voluntary service behaviour. A two-wave study was conducted among 339 adolescents in China to explore the mediating role of empathy and the moderating role of psychological collectivism between contemporary filial piety and voluntary service behaviour through structural equation modelling. We found that contemporary filial piety not only had a direct effect on voluntary service behaviour but also affected voluntary service behaviour through the mediating role of empathy. Psychological collectivism moderates the first half of the mediation path “contemporary filial piety→empathy→voluntary service behaviour.” The results reveal the mechanism by which contemporary filial piety influences adolescents’ voluntary service behaviour and provides an important reference for voluntary work.