The Relationship Between Empathy, Motherhood And Child Prosocial Behavior

Prosocial behavior is the tendency of voluntary behavior which is good for others and is vital important between individuals and groups.There are many factors result in prosocial behavior such as self-centered,other-oriented or Sincere concern?Due to the influence of the wave of positive psychology in the late 1990 s,people increasingly focus on the positive aspects of human development and psychologists from different countries carry out discussion thoroughly on prosocial behavior from different aspects.Research on it can not only reveals its general characteristics of prosocial behavior development,which can provide theoretical basis for the cultivation of children's prosocial behavior,but also help us further understand the various factors influencing prosocial behavior and how different factors interact with each other.Emotions play an important role in the development of individual prosocial values,motivation and behavior,especially the empathetic mood.The research between empathy and prosocial behavior shows that Children's empathy plays complex role in the development of peosocial behavior,so this study will continue focus on empathy.Besides,previous study of prosocial behavior was focus on the object of children,discussing the effect of Children's empathy,and little attention was paid to the the object of parents such as emotion reaction,personality traits and especially maternal empathic concern which has been found to predict the socialization of child prosocial behavior.Based on this,this study mainly focus on the object of children and mother,exploring the general characteristics of the development of children's prosocial behavior and investigating the relationships among maternal empathy,Child empathy and child prosocial behavior.Besides,Existing research results have showed that family play a vital role in the process of socialization of children,among which parenting style is a key factor.Compare to father,mother plays more important impact on the development of children.So,in this study we will focus on maternal parenting style to analyze its relationship with children's prosocial behavior.The influence mechanism of prosocial behavior is much complex,previous study of prosocial behavior was focus on two factors,but in this study we will focus on the object of children and mother,exploring the general characteristics of the development of children'sprosocial behavior and investigating the relationships among maternal empathy,maternal parenting style,Child empathy and child prosocial behavior.Participants are 173 typically children aged between 3 and 6years from some kindergartens in An Hui,Ji Nan and Bei Jing,and we use the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire to assess child prosocial behavior,and Interpersonal Reactivity Index to investigate the level of maternal empathy,and Parenting Style Assessment Scale to measure maternal parenting style,and two second-order false-belief tasks and two second-order emotion understanding tasks to evaluate child empathy.This research mainly obtained the following results:1.Children's prosocial behavior increases with the growth of the age,and exists no gender differences.2.Children's empathy increases with the growth of the age;And Children's empathy can positively predict the development of Children's prosocial behavior.3.Maternal perspective taking can positively predict the level of childrens' peosocial behavior.;And childrens' empathy plays no intermediary role between maternal perspective taking and prosocial behavior.3.Maternal emotional warmth/comprehension can positively predict childrens' prosocial behavior;And childrens' empathy play a completely intermediary role between maternal emotional warmth/comprehension and prosocial behavior.