The mediating role of empathy in the links between relationships with three socialisation agents and adolescents’ prosocial behaviours

Abstract

Previous studies have mostly focused on the socialisation role of parents on adolescents’ prosocial behaviours and there is relatively less work focusing on peers who are important socialisation agents for the development of prosocial behaviours in adolescence. Further, simultaneously examining the socialisation roles of multiple socialisation agents in prosocial behaviours and empathy development is even rarer. Thus, in the current study, we examined supportive and poor relationships with three socialisation agents (i.e., parents, peers in class, and peers in extracurricular activities) on adolescents’ prosocial behaviours, considering whether empathy mediates these relations. Additionally, we examined the links between supportive and poor relationships with peers in the class and extracurricular activities and adolescents’ prosocial behaviours, and the mediating role of empathy. The sample was 676 French adolescents (50% female, M age = 14.35 years). Supportive relationships and poor relationships models were tested separately. We examined the relative strengths of three socialisation agents using three-socialiser and two-socialiser models. In the three-socialiser model, supportive relationships with parents and peers in the extracurricular activities were positively linked to adolescents’ empathy a year later, which, in turn, was positively linked to helping and caring behaviours. Additionally, poor relationships with parents were negatively linked to adolescents’ empathy a year later, which, in turn, was positively linked to helping and caring behaviours. In the two-socialiser model, both supportive relationships with peers in class and extracurricular activities were positively linked to adolescents’ empathy 1 year later, which, in turn, was positively linked to helping and caring behaviours but only for early adolescents. Lastly, in the two-socialiser model, poor relationships with peers in extracurricular activities were negatively linked to adolescents’ empathy 1 year later, which, in turn, was positively linked to helping and caring behaviours. In general, these results were robust across adolescents’ gender and age. Overall, results make several important contributions to the literature on the role of multiple socialisation agents and adolescents’ prosocial behaviours.

Your team can make you a better person: Team cohesion is associated with off‐field prosocial behaviour via fairplay team norms and empathy in rugby union

“…The prominent mediating role of empathy falls within a vast literature (e.g., Yin & Wang, 2023) that underlines its role in promoting prosocial behaviour in different contexts, such as typical (Schoeps, Mónaco, Cotolí, & Montoya‐Castilla, 2020) and atypical development (Zhao, Li, Song, & Shi, 2019), intergroup contact (Vezzali, Hewstone, Capozza, Trifiletti, & Di Bernardo, 2016), as well as sport‐specific contexts (Sezen‐Balçikanli & Sezen, 2017). Carrizales, Gülseven, and Lannegrand (2023) studied the association between positive relationships with peers in extracurricular environments (including sports) and youngsters' prosocial behaviour, as well as the role of empathy as a mediator, with a longitudinal study involving 676 French adolescents. Positive relationships with peers in out‐of‐school environments were related to youngsters' empathy after 1 year, which, in turn, was positively associated with their prosocial behaviour.…”

Relationships between Bereavement Support Strategies and Empathy Dimensions

“…PD is self-oriented and involves anxiety, worry and/or grief as a reaction to the other person's distress, while EC is other-oriented and comprises feelings of compassion, sympathy and warmth towards a person in need (Grynberg & López-Pérez, 2018). Accordingly, empathy can be understood as taking an active interest in the problems of others, that can lead to attempts to improve their well-being; it is therefore closely related to prosocial, altruistic behavior (Andreychik & Migliaccio, 2015;Carrizales et al, 2022;Ogińska-Bulik & Michalska, 2022;Vukosavljevic-Gvozden et al, 2015;Yin & Wang, 2022). The multidimensional nature of empathy was confirmed during the construction of the Empathy Assessment Questionnaire (EAQ) in the Serbian language, which was also used in this research (Genc i sar., 2009).…”

The Effect of Empathy on Team Members’ Moqi in Virtual Teams: A Moderated Mediation Model

“… 46 Empathy is an essential interpersonal skill that promotes prosocial behaviors. 47 These extra-role behaviors, in turn, contribute to high social capital 48 and team cohesiveness. 49 When virtual team members can imagine the other’s psychological point of view, they will likely offer assurance and suggestions in time, encouraging meaningful and caring connections.…”