Chinese Adolescents’ Peer Attachment, Prosocial Behaviors: The Mediating Role of Empathy

Abstract

The goal of this current study was to explored whether the link between peer attachment and prosocial behaviors was mediated by empathy. The Chinese version of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment, the Prosocial Tendencies Measure, and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index were distributed to one thousand one hundred and eighty-seven Chinese adolescents from junior and senior high schools in Zhengzhou Henan Province (Mage=15.93 years, SD=0.88 years; 43.6%male, 56.4%female) to measure the level of peer attachment, prosocial behaviors, and empathy. The results showed that all three variables were positively correlated with each other. Peer attachment affected prosocial behaviors with the partial mediating effect of empathy. These findings suggested that better peer relationships directly fostered the appearance of adolescents’ prosocial behaviors. Empathy mediated the relation between peer attachment and prosocial behaviors. All in all, findings for this current study highlighted the importance of peer attachment and empathy skill on the altruistic and prosocial tendencies.