A Study On The Relationship Between Empathy And Adolescents’ Pro-social Behavior

Objectives: The eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China promoted "friendliness" as one of the basic contents of socialist core values,and established the important position of "friendliness" in China’s moral construction.Pro-social behavior is a concrete manifestation of the values of "friendly".The implementation of pro-social behavior can effectively relieve the tension of social life,mediate social mentality,and create a good social environment.The implementation of pro-social behavior is a prerequisite for meeting the needs of young people to socialize and respect and is also related to the future value choices and values of young people.Based on this,this paper takes 14-18-year-old adolescents as the research object to explore how empathy "affects" the occurrence of pro social behavior,and the mechanism of moral emotion and moral cognition on pro social behavior,so as to provide theoretical basis and practical enlightenment for improving the awareness of empathy and cultivating the pro social behavior of adolescents.Methods: The Interpersonal Response Index Scale,Pro social Behavior Tendency Scale,Youth Moral Identity Scale,Middle School Student Guilt Scale were used in this paper and collected 586 valid data in two middle schools in Huang shi City,Hu bei Province.Results:(1)The level of empathy among adolescents is generally above average,and the level of guilt is high,the level of moral identity is also high,and the corresponding level of pro social behavior is also high;(2)Related analysis shows that: empathy,prosocial Behavior,moral identity,and guilt are significantly related to each other,and empathy can significantly positively predict pro-social behavior;(3)The analysis of intermediary effects shows that moral identity and guilt play a significant role between empathy and pro-social behavior Mediating Role.Specifically,there are three intermediary paths: one is the sole intermediary role of moral identity;the second is the intermediary role of guilt;the third is the chain intermediary role of moral identity and guilt.Conclusions:(1)The pro-social behavior of adolescents is generally in the upper middle range,but the pro-social behavior gradually declines with age,which is the same as the trend of adolescents’ positive mood declines with age.(2)The stronger the moral emotions such as empathy and guilt,the higher the moral identity of the younger group,the easier it is to make pro-social behavior.(3)Adolescents’ empathic behaviors indirectly affect young people’s pro-social behaviors by influencing their sense of moral identity and triggering guilt.