The Mediating Roles of Moral Traits in the Links Between Expected Parental Reactions and Prosocial Behaviors

• In Event: Moral Reasoning From Childhood to Emerging Adulthood: New Perspectives

Abstract

Researchers emphasize the important role that parents have on the socialization of youths’ prosocial behaviors (Eisenberg et al., 2015; Grusec et al., 2014). One area of parenting research that has received some attention is expected parental reactions (EPRs) or youth’s judgements regarding the appropriateness of parents’ reactions to their prosocial and antisocial behaviors (Wyatt & Carlo, 2002). EPRs are suggested to be formed based on prior experiences between the parent and child thus creating expectations for the child on how parents might respond to the child’s prosocial or antisocial behaviors. These expectations are posited to guide the child’s own future behaviors. Prior work supports the link between EPRs and youth’s prosocial behavior, and the role of prosocial moral reasoning (i.e., thinking about helping opportunities) in mediating these behaviors; however, additional insight is needed regarding possible mechanisms that connect EPRs with prosocial behavior (Wyatt & Carlo, 2002; Hardy et al., 2009). Two additional sociocognitive and socioemotive traits that may facilitate the process between EPRs and prosocial behavior include empathic concern (i.e., sorrow for others) and perspective taking (i.e., understanding others’ social situations). Although these traits have been conceptually and empirically suggested as mediating parenting and prosocial behavior (Eisenberg & Spinrad, 2014), prior work has not examined whether these traits can explain the role that EPRs have on prosocial behavior. The present study was designed to examine the possible mediating roles of sociocognitive (i.e., prosocial moral reasoning and perspective taking) and socioemotive (i.e., empathic concern) traits in the relations between EPRs and youth’s prosocial behaviors.
Participants were 324 college students (Mage=19.47, SD=1.10; 80% female) from a large U.S. Midwest university. Students completed the Expected Parental Reactions Scale (Wyatt & Carlo, 2002), the Prosocial Reasoning Objective Measure (Carlo et al., 1992), the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory (Weinberger & Schwartz, 1990), and the Prosocial Tendencies Measure (Carlo & Randall, 2002). Table 1 shows the descriptives and correlations of the main variables. A path model conducted in Mplus8 (Muthén & Muthén, 1997-2017) showed EPRs to prosocial behavior were positively linked to college students’ compliant prosocial behaviors, and to perspective taking and empathic concern. Perspective taking was positively related to compliant, dire, and anonymous prosocial behaviors. Empathic concern was positively related to prosocial moral reasoning, and emotional, dire, and compliant prosocial behaviors. Prosocial moral reasoning was negatively related to public prosocial behaviors and positively related to altruistic prosocial behaviors. Additionally, we found several partial indirect effects. For instance, EPRs to prosocial behaviors were indirectly related to emotional, compliant, and dire prosocial behaviors via empathic concern and perspective taking. EPRs to prosocial behaviors were also indirectly related to emotional, compliant, and dire prosocial behaviors via empathic concern. Finally, empathic concern mediated between perspective taking and compliant, emotional, and dire prosocial behaviors.
Overall, the findings suggest that expected parental reactions to prosocial behavior contribute to college students’ prosocial behaviors indirectly through several of their moral traits. Discussion will focus on the roles of expected parental reactions and sociocognitive and socioemotive mechanisms in predicting prosocial behaviors.

Authors

• Sahitya Maiya, University of New Hampshire
  Presenting Author

• Jon Dicus, University of Missouri
  Non-Presenting Author

• Gustavo Carlo, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author