The Effect Of Parenting Style On Altruistic Behavior

Altruistic behavior refers to the behaviors that helping others voluntarily without expecting any material or spiritual reward,and the altruistic people may even pay a certain price.As the starting point of individual education and socialization,parenting style plays an important role in promoting the healthy growth and development of individuals.It is found that good parenting style can promote altruistic behavior,while bad parenting style can inhibit altruistic behavior.The influence channel of parenting style on altruistic behavior is not the only one,but also through other variables.With negative parenting styles,individuals will reduce their internal moral standards,increase their cognition of moral disengagement,and thus make unethical behaviors.Empathy is a trait that individuals can feel others' emotions and resonate with others' emotions.At a high level of empathy,individuals are more likely to help others or do altruistic acts in order to get rid of their guilt and uneasiness and make their unreasonable behaviors conform to their own moral standards.In this study,we attempted to establish a moderated mediation model by taking parenting style as the independent variable,altruistic behavior as the dependent variable,moral disengagement as the mediator,and empathy as the moderator.In this study,we used the questionnaire method to investigate the college students in Hubei and Jilin Province by using the Questionnaire of Altruistic Behavior of College Students,the Questionnaire of Parenting Style,the Questionnaire of Moral Disengagement and the scale of Interpersonal Reactivity Index.In the study,402 questionnaires were collected through on-site questionnaire distribution and network platform.The results showed that:(1)There were demographic differences in the way of parenting style,moral disengagement,empathy and altruistic behavior of college students.Specifically,there were gender differences in parenting styles.Compared to boys,parents were more inclined to adopt emotional warm parenting styles for girls.Compared to the rural andnon-single children,the urban and single children perceived more of the warm parenting style.In the aspect of moral disengagement,the degree of moral disengagement of boys was higher than that of girls.In addition,the level of empathy of girls was higher than that of boys.(2)There were significant correlations between the main variables in this study.There was a significant positive correlation between the dimensions of parental emotional warmth and altruistic behavior,a significant negative correlation between moral disengagement and altruistic behavior,and a significant positive correlation between empathy and altruistic behavior.Secondly,there was a significant correlation between parenting styles and moral disengagement.Specifically,there was a significant positive correlation between the dimensions of parental rejection and parental overprotection and moral disengagement,and a significant negative correlation between the dimensions of parental emotional warmth and moral disengagement.Finally,there was a significant negative correlation between moral rejection and empathy.(3)Moral disengagement partially mediated the relationship between parenting style and altruistic behavior.(4)The moderating effect of empathy on moral disengagement in the mediating model of the influence of parenting style on altruistic behavior has not been verified.That is to say,for individuals with low level of empathy,moral disengagement has an mediating effect on parenting style and altruistic behavior.For individuals with high level of empathy,the mediating effect not exist.