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ResumenEste estudio persigue un doble objetivo: i) analizar las relaciones entre empatía, conducta prosocial y razonamiento moral prosocial y sus diferencias en función del sexo; ii) analizar el valor predictor de dichas variables en la empatía, como variable dependiente. La población evaluada está compuesta por 1557 adolescentes de 12 a 15 años (M = 13.13, DT = .86; 47.4 % chicas; 52.6 % chicos). Los análisis muestran diferencias significativas entre chicos y chicas. Las chicas obtienen mayores índices de empatía, conducta prosocial, razonamiento moral prosocial, en las dimensiones de interiorizado, orientado hacia la necesidad y estereotipado. Los chicos, por su parte, muestran mayores índices en agresividad física y verbal, razonamiento moral hedonista y orientado a la aprobación. Las variables predictoras en la explicación de la empatía, tanto en chicos como en chicas, son la conducta prosocial (en positivo) y el razonamiento hedonista (en negativo). En el colectivo de varones aparecen, además, otras variables predictoras de la empatía. Éstas se refieren al razonamiento moral prosocial interiorizado y al orientado hacia la necesidad de forma positiva, y a la agresividad en negativo. Los resultaos aportan nuevas ideas para establecer programas de intervención. AbstractThis study has two objectives. On the one hand, to analyze the relationships between empathy, prosocial behavior and prosocial moral reasoning, as well as the differences between them in terms of gender. On the other hand, to analyze the predictive value of these variables on empathy, taken as a criterion vari­able. The sample comprised 1,557 participants (M = 13.13; DT = .86) from 12 to 15 years (47.4 % girls and 52.6 % boys). Comparison of means shows significant differences based on gender. The girls ex­pressed higher levels of empathy, prosocial behavior, prosocial moral reasoning, in the dimensions of in­ternalized, facing the necessity and stereotyped. The boys, meanwhile, show higher rates in physical and verbal aggressiveness and hedonistic and approval-oriented prosocial moral reasoning. Regression anal­ysis identified as predictors of empathy in boys and girls, prosocial behavior and hedonistic reasoning. Prosocial behavior maintains direct relationships with empathy, in the case of hedonism relationships are negative. In the group of boys there are other predic­tors of empathy. These variables are positively asso­ciated with internalized prosocial moral reasoning and moral reasoning led to the need, and negatively with aggressiveness. Perhaps more importantly, more efficient intervention programs designed to foster specific types of prosocial behaviors.

The infantile and juvenile aggressiveness is considered to be a complex phenomenon, with multiple factors that contribute to different aggressive manifestations. For all this, this phenomenon has been an object of many investigations, which have the aim to understand the basic mechanisms that cause and regulate these behaviors (Eron y Huesmann, 1984; Caprara y Pastorelli, 1989, 1993, 1996; Bandura, Barbaranelli, Caprara, Pastorelli, y Regalia 2001; Caprara, Barbaranelli, Pastorelli, Bandura, y Zimbardo, 2001). This work tries to analyze the aggressive behavior and the implied processes. We have evaluated the emotional instability (IE, Caprara & Pastorelli, 1993; Del Barrio, Moreno & Lopez, 2001), the physical and verbal aggressiveness (AFV, Caprara & Pastorelli, 1993; Del Barrio, et al., 2001), the anger like a state and trait (STAXI, Spielberger, 1988; Del Barrio, Spielberger & Moscoso, 1998), the emphaty (IECA, Bryant, 1982; Mestre, Perez, Frias, & Samper, 1999): the prosocial reasoning (PROM, Carlo, Eisenberg & Knight, 1992; Mestre, Frias, Samper & Tur, 2002) and the child-rearing styles (CRPBI, Schaefer, 1965; Samper, Cortes, Mestre, Nacher & Tur, 2006), including the self and heteroinform behavior by the friends of college and the own tutor. The ANOVAS and the discriminating analyses show differences between the considered more or less stable subjects emotionally and aggressive. The main results indicate that the emotional instability and the anger are the variables with major power predictor of the aggressiveness in the teenagers, with a low capacity of self-control.

The assessment of pro-social moral reasoning through objective measurement is considered an important attainment in pro-social development research in recent decades. Based on N. Eisenberg's theory, PROM (Carlo et al., 1992) can objectively measure reasoning cognitive processes related to pro-social behaviour. This paper presents the adaptation and accreditation of this instrument for a Spanish adolescent population. The randomisation of the selected sample, its wide scope, and the reliability and validity of the results obtained make PROM a suitable instrument for evaluating the different pro-social reasoning types related to aid conduct amongst adolescents.