Research suggests that empathy and positive social values are important drivers of youth prosocial and civic action. However, theory and research indicate that young people’s civic behaviors are also shaped by their socio-contextual experiences. Drawing on a sample of 533 adolescents from public secondary schools in the Republic of Ireland, this research employed structural equation modeling to examine whether youth’s (cognitive and affective) empathy and social responsibility values mediated the relationship between youth’s social (parents, peers, school, and community) contexts and their civic behavior. Results suggest that youth’s cognitive empathy and social responsibility values appear to mediate the relationship between a number of social-contextual experiences and youth’s civic behavior. Overall, the findings from this research have important implications for research and practice.
AcostaJ.ChinmanM.EbenerP.MaloneP. S.PhillipsA.WilksA. (2019). Understanding the relationship between perceived school climate and bullying: A mediator analysis. Journal of School Violence, 18, 200-215. doi:10.1080/15388220.2018.1453820
2.
AlessandriG.Luengo KanacriB. P.EisenbergN.ZuffianoA.MilioniM.VecchioneM.CapraraG. V. (2014). Prosociality during the transition from late adolescence to young adulthood: The role of effortful control and ego-resiliency. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40, 1451-1465. doi:10.1177/0146167214549321
3.
AllemandM.SteigerA. E.FendH. A. (2015). Empathy development in adolescence predicts social competencies in adulthood. Journal of Personality, 83, 229-241. doi:10.1111/jopy.12098
4.
AtkinsR.HartD. (2003). Neighborhoods, adults, and the development of civic identity in urban youth. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 156-164. doi:10.1207/S1532480XADS0703_6
5.
AttiliG.VermigliP.RoazziA. (2010). Children’s social competence, peer status, and the quality of mother-child and father–child relationships: A multidimensional scaling approach. European Psychologist, 15(1), 23-33. doi: 10.1027/1016-9040/a000002
6.
BallardP. J.HoytL. T.PachuckiM. C. (2018). Impacts of adolescent and young adult civic engagement on health and socioeconomic status in adulthood. Child Development, 90, 1138-1154. doi:10.1111/cdev.12998
7.
BebirogluN.GeldhofG. J.PinderhughesE. E.PhelpsE.LernerR. M. (2013). From family to society: The role of perceived parenting behaviors in promoting youth civic engagement. Parenting, 13, 153-168. doi:10.1080/15295192.2013.756352
8.
BernhardtB. C.SingerT. (2012). The neural basis of empathy. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 35, 1-23. doi:10.1146/annurev-neuro-062111-150536
9.
ByrneB. M. (2016). Structural equation modeling with AMOS: Basic concepts, applications, and programming. New York, NY: Routledge.
10.
CapraraG. V.AlessandriG.Di GiuntaL.PaneraiL.EisenbergN. (2010). The contribution of agreeableness and self-efficacy beliefs to prosociality. European Journal of Personality: Published for the European Association of Personality Psychology, 24(1), 36-55. doi:10.1002/per.739
11.
CarloG.WhiteR.StreitC.KnightG. P.ZeidersK. H. (2017). Longitudinal relations among parenting styles, prosocial behaviors, and academic outcomes in US Mexican adolescents. Child Development, 89, 577-592. doi:10.1111/cdev.12761
12.
CatalanoR. F.HawkinsJ. D. (1996). The social development model: A theory of antisocial behavior. Seattle: University of Washington.
13.
Chase-LansdaleP. L.WakschlagL. S.Brooks-GunnJ. (1995). A psychological perspective on the development of caring in children and youth: The role of the family. Journal of Adolescence, 18, 515-556. doi:10.1006/jado.1995.1037
CrocettiE.MoscatelliS.Van der GraaffJ.RubiniM.MeeusW.BranjeS. (2016). The interplay of self-certainty and prosocial development in the transition from late adolescence to emerging adulthood. European Journal of Personality, 30, 594-607. doi:10.1002/per.2084
16.
CuffB. M.BrownS. J.TaylorL.HowatD. J. (2016). Empathy: A review of the concept. Emotion Review, 8, 144-153. doi:10.1177/1754073914558466
17.
Da SilvaL.SansonA.SmartD.ToumbourouJ. (2004). Civic responsibility among Australian adolescents: Testing two competing models. Journal of Community Psychology, 32, 229-255. doi:10.1002/jcop.20004
18.
DavisM. H. (1983). Measuring individual differences in empathy: Evidence for a multidimensional approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44(1), 113-126. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.44.1.113
19.
DavisM. H. (2018). Empathy: A Social Psychological Approach. London, England: Routledge.
20.
DecetyJ.YoderK. J. (2015). Empathy and motivation for justice: Cognitive empathy and concern, but not emotional empathy, predict sensitivity to injustice for others. Social Neuroscience, 11(1), 1-14. doi:10.1080/17470919.2015.1029593
21.
EisenbergN.EggumN. D.Di GiuntaL. (2010). Empathy-related responding: Associations with prosocial behavior, aggression, and intergroup relations. Social Issues and Policy Review, 4(1), 143-180. doi:10.1111/j.1751-2409.2010.01020.x
22.
EisenbergN.SpinradT. L.ValienteC. (2018). Emotion-related self-regulation and children’s social, psychological, and academic functioning. In BalterL.Tamis-LeMondaC. S. (Eds.), Child psychology: A handbook of contemporary issues (pp. 268-295). New York, NY: Routledge.
23.
EvansC. B.SmokowskiP. R. (2015). Prosocial bystander behavior in bullying dynamics: Assessing the impact of social capital. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44, 2289-2307. doi:10.1007/s10964-015-0338-5
24.
FarrellA. D.ThompsonE. L.MehariK. R. (2017). Dimensions of peer influences and their relationship to adolescents’ aggression, other problem behaviors and prosocial behaviour. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 46, 1351-1369. doi:10.1007/s10964-016-0601-4
25.
FlanaganC. A. (2013). Teenage citizens: The political theories of the young. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
26.
FlanaganC. A.SherrodL. R. (1998). Youth political development: An introduction. Journal of Social Issues, 54, 447-456. doi:10.1111/j.1540-4560.1998.tb01229.x
27.
FlanaganC. A.SyvertsenA. K.StoutM. D. (2007). Civic measurement models: Tapping adolescents’ civic engagement (CIRCLE Working Paper 55). College Park, MD: Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE).
28.
GaymanA. M.Fraser-ThomasJ.BakerJ. (2017). Relational developmental systems metatheory: A conceptual framework to understand and promote older adults’ involvement in sport. European Review of Aging and Physical Activity, 14(1), Article 12. doi:10.1186/s11556-017-0182-6
29.
GerbinoM.ZuffianoA.EisenbergN.CastellaniV.Luengo KanacriB. P.PastorelliC.CapraraG. V. (2018). Adolescents’ prosocial behavior predicts good grades beyond intelligence and personality traits. Journal of Personality, 86, 247-260. doi:10.1111/jopy.12309
30.
HardyS. A.CarloG. (2005). Religiosity and prosocial behaviours in adolescence: The mediating role of prosocial values. Journal of Moral Education, 34, 231-249. doi.org/10.1080/03057240500127210
31.
HayesA. F. (2013). Methodology in the social sciences. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
32.
HoffmanM. L. (2000). Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
33.
HooperD.CoughlanJ.MullenM. R. (2008). Structural equation modelling: Guidelines for determining model fit. Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 6(1), 53-60.
34.
HopeE. C.JagersR. J. (2014). The role of sociopolitical attitudes and civic education in the civic engagement of Black youth. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 24, 460-470. doi:10.1111/jora.12117
35.
IBM. (2017). IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 22.0. Armonk, NY: IBM.
36.
JaureguizarJ.IbabeI.StrausM. A. (2013). Violent and prosocial behavior by adolescents toward parents and teachers in a community sample. Psychology in the Schools, 50, 451-470. doi:10.1002/pits.21685
37.
JessorR.TurbinM. S. (2014). Parsing protection and risk for problem behavior versus pro-social behavior among US and Chinese adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43, 1037-1051. doi: 10.1007/s10964-014-0130-y
38.
KlineR. B. (2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
39.
KonrathS.O’BrienE.HsingC. (2011). Changes in dispositional empathy in American college students over time: A meta-analysis. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 180-198. doi:10.1177/1088868310377395
40.
LaiF. H.SiuA. M.ShekD. T. (2015). Individual and social predictors of prosocial behavior among Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 3, Article 39. doi:10.3389/fped.2015.00039
41.
LenziM.VienoA.PastoreM.SantinelloM. (2013). Neighborhood social connectedness and adolescent civic engagement: An integrative model. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 34, 45-54. doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2012.12.003
42.
LenziM.VienoA.PerkinsD. D.SantinelloM.ElgarF. J.MorganA.MazzardisS. (2012). Family affluence, school and neighborhood contexts and adolescents’ civic engagement: A cross-national study. American Journal of Community Psychology, 50, 197-210. doi:10.1007/s10464-012-9489-7
43.
LernerR. M.WangJ.ChampineR. B.WarrenD. J.EricksonK. (2014). Development of civic engagement: Theoretical and methodological issues. International Journal of Developmental Science, 8(3-4), 69-79. doi:10.3233/DEV-14130
44.
LevinK. A. (2006). Study design III: Cross-sectional studies. Evidence-Based Dentistry, 7(1), 24-25. doi:10.1038/sj.ebd.6400375
45.
LevineP. (2013). We are the ones we have been waiting for: The promise of civic renewal in America. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
46.
LockwoodP. L.Seara-CardosoA.VidingE. (2014). Emotion regulation moderates the association between empathy and prosocial behaviour. PLOS ONE, 9(5), e96555.
47.
Luengo KanacriB. P.EisenbergN.ThartoriE.PastorelliC.Uribe TiradoL. M.GerbinoM.CapraraG. V. (2017). Longitudinal relations among positivity, perceived positive school climate, and prosocial behavior in Colombian adolescents. Child Development, 88, 1100-1114. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12863
48.
Luengo KanacriB. P.GonzálezR.ValdenegroD.Jiménez-MoyaG.SaavedraP.MoraE. A.… PastorelliC. (2016). Civic engagement and giving behaviors: The role of empathy and beliefs about poverty. The Journal of Social Psychology, 156, 256-271. doi:10.1080/00224545.2016.1148006
49.
MalinA. J.PosA. E. (2015). The impact of early empathy on alliance building, emotional processing, and outcome during experiential treatment of depression. Psychotherapy Research, 25, 445-459. doi:10.1080/10503307.2014.901572
50.
MartelaF.RyanR. M. (2016). The benefits of benevolence: Basic psychological needs, beneficence, and the enhancement of well-being. Journal of Personality, 84, 750-764. doi:10.1111/jopy.12215
51.
MesuradoB.RichaudM. C. (2017). The relationship between parental variables, empathy and prosocial-flow with prosocial behavior toward strangers, friends, and family. Journal of Happiness Studies, 18, 843-860. doi:10.1007/s10902-016-9748-7
52.
MetzgerA.AlvisL. M.OosterhoffB.BabskieE.SyvertsenA.Wray-LakeL. (2018). The intersection of emotional and sociocognitive competencies with civic engagement in middle childhood and adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47(8), 1663-1683. doi:10.1007/s10964-018-0842-5
53.
MiklikowskaM. (2017). Development of anti-immigrant attitudes in adolescence: The role of parents, peers, intergroup friendships, and empathy. British Journal of Psychology, 108, 626-648. doi:10.1111/bjop.12236
54.
MillerJ. G.KahleS.HastingsP. D. (2015). Roots and benefits of costly giving: Young children’s altruism is related to having less family wealth and more autonomic flexibility. Psychological Science, 26, 1038-1049. doi:10.1177/0956797615578476
55.
NesdaleD.GriffithJ.DurkinK.MaassA. (2005). Empathy, group norms and children’s ethnic attitudes. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26, 623-637. doi:10.1016/j.appdev.2005.08.003
56.
O’BrienD. T.KauffmanR. A. (2013). Broken windows and low adolescent prosociality: Not cause and consequence, but co-symptoms of low collective efficacy. American Journal of Community Psychology, 51, 359-369. doi:10.1007/s10464-012-9555-1
57.
OsherD.CantorP.BergJ.SteyerL.RoseT. (2018). Drivers of human development: How relationships and context shape learning and development. Applied Developmental Science, 24(1), 1-31. doi:10.1080/10888691.2017.1398650
58.
OvertonW. F. (2015). Processes, relations, and relational-developmental-systems. In OvertonW. F.MolenaarP. C. M. (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology and developmental science (7th ed., pp. 9-62). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
59.
Padilla-WalkerL. M.ChristensenK. J. (2011). Empathy and self-regulation as mediators between parenting and adolescents’ prosocial behavior toward strangers, friends, and family. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21, 545-551. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7795.2010.00695.x
60.
PierottiS. L. (2016). Testing a US Mexican cultural value transmission model of maternal socialization of youth civic responsibility values and prosocial behaviors (Doctoral dissertation). University of Missouri, Columbia, SC.
61.
PowellP. A.RobertsJ. (2017). Situational determinants of cognitive, affective, and compassionate empathy in naturalistic digital interactions. Computers in Human Behavior, 68, 137-148. doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.024
62.
PrattM. W.HunsbergerB.PancerS. M.AlisatS. (2003). A longitudinal analysis of personal values socialization: Correlates of a moral self-ideal in late adolescence. Social Development, 12, 563-585. doi:10.1111/1467-9507.00249
63.
PreacherK. J.RuckerD. D.HayesA. F. (2007). Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42, 185-227. doi:10.1080/00273170701341316
64.
RossiG.LenziM.SharkeyJ. D.VienoA.SantinelloM. (2016). Factors associated with civic engagement in adolescence: The effects of neighbourhood, school, family and peer contexts. Journal of Community Psychology, 44, 1040-1058. doi:10.1002/jcop.21826
65.
SallquistJ.EisenbergN.SpinradT. L.EggumN. D.GaertnerB. M. (2009). Assessment of preschoolers’ positive empathy: Concurrent and longitudinal relations with positive emotion, social competence, and sympathy. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4, 223-233. doi:10.1080/17439760902819444
66.
SchmidtJ. A.ShumowL.KackarH. (2007). Adolescents’ participation in service activities and its impact on academic, behavioral, and civic outcomes. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36(2), 127-140. doi:10.1007/s10964-006-9119-5
67.
SegalE. A. (2011). Social empathy: A model built on empathy, contextual understanding, and social responsibility that promotes social justice. Journal of Social Service Research, 37, 266-277. doi:10.1080/01488376.2011.564040
68.
SilkeC.BradyB.BoylanC.DolanP. (2018). Factors influencing the development of empathy and prosocial behaviour among adolescents: A systematic review. Children and Youth Services Review, 94, 421-436. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.07.027
69.
SilkeC.BradyB.DolanP.BoylanC. (2019). Social values and civic behaviour among youth in Ireland: The influence of social contexts. Irish Journal of Sociology, 28(1), 44-64. doi: 10.1177/0791603519863295
70.
SmithB. G.KendallM. C.KnightonD. (2018). Rise of the brand ambassador: Social stake, corporate social responsibility and influence among the social media influencers. Communication Management Review, 3(1), 6-29. doi:10.22522/cmr20180127
71.
SpinradT. L.EisenbergN. (2014). Empathy, prosocial behavior, and positive development in schools. In GilmanR.HuebnerE. S.FurlongM. J. (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology in schools (pp. 90-106). New York, NY: Routledge.
72.
TabachnickB. G.FidellL. S. (2007). Using multivariate statistics. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson Education.
73.
Torney-PurtaJ.BarberC. H.WilkenfeldB. (2007). Latino adolescents’ civic development in the United States: Research results from the IEA Civic Education Study. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 36(2), 111-125. doi:10.1007/s10964-006-9121-y
74.
Van der GraaffJ.CarloG.CrocettiE.KootH. M.BranjeS. (2018). Prosocial behavior in adolescence: Gender differences in development and links with empathy. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47, 1086-1099. doi:10.1007/s10964-017-0786-1
75.
Van LissaC. J.HawkS. T.MeeusW. H. (2017). The effects of affective and cognitive empathy on adolescents’ behavior and outcomes in conflicts with mothers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 158, 32-45. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2017.01.002
76.
VasconcelosM.HollisK.NowbahariE.KacelnikA. (2012). Pro-sociality without empathy. Biology Letters, 8, 910-912. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2012.0554
77.
VerhofstadtL.DevoldreI.BuysseA.StevensM.HinnekensC.IckesW. (2016). The role of cognitive and affective empathy in spouses’ support interactions: An observational study. PLOS ONE, 11(2), Article e0149944. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0149944
78.
VerplankenB.HollandR. W. (2002). Motivated decision making: Effects of activation and self-centrality of values on choices and behaviour. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 434-447. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.82.3.434
79.
VoightA.Torney-PurtaJ. (2013). A typology of youth civic engagement in urban middle schools. Applied Developmental Science, 17, 198-212. doi:10.1080/10888691.2013.836041
80.
WagamanM. A. (2011). Social empathy as a framework for adolescent empowerment. Journal of Social Service Research, 37, 278-293. doi:10.1080/01488376.2011.564045
81.
WilkenfeldB.LauckhardtJ.Torney-PurtaJ. (2010). The relation between developmental theory and measures of civic engagement in research on adolescents. In SherrodL. R.Torney-PurtaJ.FlanaganC. A. (Eds.), Handbook of research on civic engagement in youth (pp. 193-219). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley.
82.
Wray-LakeL.SyvertsenA. K. (2011). The developmental roots of social responsibility in childhood and adolescence. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2011(134), 11-25. doi:10.1002/cd.308
83.
Wray-LakeL.DeHaanC. R.ShubertJ.RyanR. M. (2017). Examining links from civic engagement to daily well-being from a self-determination theory perspective. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 4(2), 166-177. doi:10.1080/17439760.2017.1388432
84.
Wray-LakeL.SyvertsenA. K.FlanaganC. A. (2016). Developmental change in social responsibility during adolescence: An ecological perspective. Developmental Psychology, 52(1), 130-142. doi:10.1037/dev0000067
85.
ZaffJ. F.Kawashima-GinsbergK.LinE. S.LambM.BalsanoA.LernerR. M. (2011). Developmental trajectories of civic engagement across adolescence: Disaggregation of an integrated construct. Journal of Adolescence, 34, 1207-1220. doi:10.1016/j.adolescence.2011.07.005
86.
ZuffianòA.AlessandriG.KanacriB. P. L.PastorelliC.MilioniM.CeravoloR.… CapraraG. V. (2014). The relation between prosociality and self-esteem from middle-adolescence to young adulthood. Personality and Individual Differences, 63, 24-29. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2014.01.041
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
