Developing children’s humanity: the unique and interactive role of parents’ and peers’ humanity

Abstract

The present study investigated the unique and interactive role of parents’ and peers’ humanity virtue (i.e. kindness, love, and social intelligence) in association with children’s humanity. The participants were 761 fourth- to ninth-graders (M age = 12.62; 45.2% boys) and their biological parents. The humanity subscale of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Adults (VIA-IS) and Youth (VIA-Youth) was used to measure the humanity of each party. The results showed that mothers’ and fathers’ kindness were associated with children’s kindness, mothers’ love and fathers’ social intelligence were associated with children’s love and social intelligence, respectively. All three dimensions of the humanity of peers were positively related to that of children. Two-way interactions were found between mother and peer systems and displayed distinct interaction patterns in terms of kindness and love. Possible explanations and directions for future research are discussed.