The Mediating Effect of Empathy on the Relation Between Child Self-Expressiveness in Family and Prosocial Behaviors.

Objective: The present study aimed to examine children's self-expressivity in family and its relation to social emotional competence. Specifically, we examined the mediating effects of empathy on the relations between child self-expressivity in family and prosocial behaviors. Methods: A sample of 982 (63% female) 7–9th grade students in Seoul, South Korea were given a survey, which measured self-expressivity in family, cognitive and affective empathy, and PSB towards strangers and acquaintances. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the hypothesized structural relationships among latent variables. Results: Results indicated that children's positive expressivity in family had significant indirect effects on PSB toward strangers via cognitive empathy for both males (β = 0.25, p < 0.05) and females (β = 0.17, p < 0.05), but only significant indirect effects on PSB toward acquaintances via cognitive empathy for females (β = 0.14, p < 0.05). Children's negative expressivity in family had significant indirect effects on PSB toward strangers via cognitive empathy for only males (β = 0.12, p < 0.05), and no significant indirect effects on PSB toward acquaintances via cognitive empathy for both gender groups. Affective empathy did not significantly mediate relations between self-expressivity and PSB. Overall, children who showed more positive expressivity and less negative expressivity in family tended to show more PSB. Conclusions: Our findings indicated the promotion of positive expressivity in the home would be associated with increased cognitive empathy, and in turn, with more PSB in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]