Abstract
Parenting practices are assumed to have an important influence on predicting adolescents’ prosocial behavior. However, the underlying mechanisms of the link between the critical parenting practice of parental behavioral control and adolescents’ prosocial behavior have received relatively less attention. Adolescents’ empathy and self-esteem are also identified as contributing to their prosocial behavior. This study investigated whether adolescents’ empathy mediated the relationship between maternal behavioral control and their prosocial behavior and whether the mediation process was moderated by their self-esteem. Self-report questionnaires measuring these variables were administered to 2502 Mainland Chinese adolescents (M age = 13.79 years; range = 11‒18 years; 52% girls). After controlling for demographic variables, the results revealed that empathy partially mediated the link between maternal behavioral control and prosocial behavior. Furthermore, the effect of maternal behavioral control on empathy and empathy on prosocial behavior was both moderated by self-esteem. The discussion elaborates on the function of maternal behavioral control in adolescents’ prosocial behavior development.
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Data for this study are available by emailing the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 20VSZ138).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Yanchun Liu, Jiali Ni, Ailou Liu, Na Wu, and Yaping Wang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Yaping Wang, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Wang, Y., Liu, Y., Ni, J. et al. Maternal behavioral control and prosocial behavior in mainland Chinese adolescents: a moderated mediation model of empathy and self-esteem. Curr Psychol 43, 5301–5308 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04733-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04733-8