IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i9p5630-d809014.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Association between Parental Marital Satisfaction and Adolescent Prosocial Behavior in China: A Moderated Serial Mediation Model

Author

Listed:
  • Ruiping Zhang

    (Department of Psychology, School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

  • Yaqian Guo

    (Department of Psychology, School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

  • Baoyu Bai

    (Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China)

  • Yabing Wang

    (Department of Psychology, School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

  • Linlin Gao

    (Department of Psychology, School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

  • Lan Cheng

    (Department of Psychology, School of Education, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450001, China)

Abstract

Parental marital satisfaction is a well-established protective factor for prosocial behavior in adolescents, yet the parental socialization of adolescent prosocial behavior is limited in Chinese culture. Furthermore, it remains unknown whether the association between parental marital satisfaction and adolescent prosocial behavior is mediated by parent–child intimacy and/or adolescent empathy. The present study examined these associations in 480 students (50.4% male, age = 12.7 ± 0.54 years) and one of their parents. Path analysis (Mplus) revealed that parental marital satisfaction was related to a high level of parent–child intimacy, which was, in turn, associated with a high level of adolescent empathy, which itself predicted adolescent prosocial behavior. The serial mediation effect differed between boys and girls. Specifically, compared with boys, girls’ parent–child intimacy was a stronger predictor of their empathy, and empathy had a stronger predictive effect on their prosocial behavior. Several implications for interventions and policies for increasing prosocial behavior in children are suggested.

Suggested Citation

  • Ruiping Zhang & Yaqian Guo & Baoyu Bai & Yabing Wang & Linlin Gao & Lan Cheng, 2022. "The Association between Parental Marital Satisfaction and Adolescent Prosocial Behavior in China: A Moderated Serial Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-12, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5630-:d:809014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5630/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5630/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:9:p:5630-:d:809014. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.