Chinese college students’ parental attachment, peer attachment, and prosocial behaviors: The moderating role of respiratory sinus arrhythmia

Abstract

The goal of this study was to examine whether the links between Chinese college students’ parental attachment, peer attachment, and prosocial behaviors were moderated by a physiological factor—baseline respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). The simplified version of the Inventory of Parental and Peer Attachment (IPPA-R) and the Chinese version of the Prosocial Tendencies Measure (PTM-R) were administered to one hundred forty-four undergraduate students (M = 18.96 years, SD = 1.06 years; 30 % men) to assess parental and peer attachment and prosocial behaviors. Baseline RSA was calculated by electrocardiogram (ECG) data collected during a resting period in the laboratory. The results showed that both parental and peer attachment were positively associated with college students’ global prosocial behaviors. Moreover, peer attachment interacted with baseline RSA to predict college students’ global prosocial behaviors. Specifically, peer attachment was positively related to global prosocial behaviors among college students with low baseline RSA, while peer attachment was not related to global prosocial behaviors among college students with high baseline RSA. In addition, the examination with submeasures of prosocial behaviors revealed that parental and peer attachment and their interaction with baseline RSA have different effects on these different types of prosocial behaviors. The current findings highlight the importance of the consideration of psychosocial factors in conjunction with physiological factors to predict college students’ prosocial behaviors.