Are women more empathetic than men? A longitudinal study in adolescence.

Since the 1970s there has been a growing interest in analysing sex differences in psychological variables. Empirical studies and meta-analyses have contributed evidence on the differences between male and female individuals. More recently, the gender similarities hypothesis has supported the similarity of men and women in most psychological variables. This study contributes information on women's greater empathic disposition in comparison with men by means of a longitudinal design in an adolescent population. 505 male and female adolescents aged between 13 and 16 years were evaluated at two different moments (grade 2 and grade 3, lower secondary education). They completed the Index of Empat…

Empatía en la adolescencia. Relaciones con razonamiento moral prosocial, conducta prosocial y agresividad

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 ín…

Feelings or cognitions? Moral cognitions and emotions as longitudinal predictors of prosocial and aggressive behaviors

Abstract There is debate regarding the roles of sociomoral cognitions and emotions in understanding moral development. The short-term longitudinal relations among perspective taking, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, prosocial behaviors and aggression in adolescents were examined. Participants were 489 students ( M age = 12.28 years, SD  = .48; 232 boys) in public and private schools from predominantly middle class families in Valencia, Spain. Students completed measures of perspective taking, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, prosocial behaviors, and aggressive behaviors. Overall, structural equation modeling analyses showed that moral reasoning and emotions were interrelated and pre…

Sexism, romantic love and gender inequality. A study of Latin American adolescents living in Spain

Este trabajo examina el papel de los factores sociodemográficos como determinantes de las creencias y actitudes sexistas y las percepciones distorsionadas sobre el amor romántico, y analiza la relación entre el sexismo hostil y el sexismo benevolente y las creencias en mitos del amor romántico, según el Índice de Desigualdad de Género (idg), en una muestra de 203 adolescentes latinoamericanos residentes en Valencia (España). This paper examines the role of socio-demographic factors determining both sexist beliefs and attitudes and distorted perceptions of romantic love. Moreover, the relationship between hostile and benevolent sexism, and the belief in myths about romantic love is analyzed …

The interplay of emotional instability, empathy, and coping on prosocial and aggressive behaviors

Abstract Mediating and moderating effects of socioemotive traits and coping styles on aggression and prosocial behaviors were examined. A sample of 1557 students from Spain (53% male, M age = 13.12) completed self-report instruments of coping, empathy, emotional instability, physical aggression, and prosocial behaviors. Structural equation analysis showed support for two mediation models but little support for moderation. Emotional instability positively predicted emotion-focused coping, which in turn, positively predicted aggression. In contrast, empathy positively predicted problem-focused coping, which in turn, positively predicted prosocial behaviors. Moreover, problem-focused coping po…

PROSOCIAL MORAL REASONING AND PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR AMONG TURKISH AND SPANISH ADOLESCENTS

Due to copyright restrictions, the access to the full text of this article is only available via subscription. Prosocial moral reasoning and behavior of young people in early and middle adolescence were examined in relation to the association among the variable of cultural group, age, and gender. Adolescents from Valencia, Spain (673 boys, 579 girls) and Ankara, Turkey (185 boys, 145 girls) participated in this study. Results showed significant cultural group differences on both prosocial moral reasoning subscales and peer rating of prosocial behavior with Spanish adolescents scoring higher than Turkish adolescents, and in the pattern of relationships between these variables. There were als…

The Protective Role of Prosocial Behaviors on Antisocial Behaviors: The Mediating Effects of Deviant Peer Affiliation

Prosocial behaviors, actions intended to help others, may serve a protective function against association with deviant peers and subsequent delinquent and antisocial behaviors. The present study examined the relations among specific types of prosocial behaviors, deviant peer affiliation, and delinquent and aggressive behaviors. Six hundred and sixty-six adolescents (46% girls; M age = 15.33, SD = .47) from Valencia, Spain completed questionnaires of prosocial behaviors, affiliation with deviant peers, antisocial behaviors, and aggression. Results showed that antisocial behaviors were negatively related only to specific forms of prosocial behaviors. Further analyses showed that deviant peer …

Psychometric Evidence of a Multidimensional Measure of Prosocial Behaviors for Spanish Adolescents

Prior theories and scholars rarely distinguished between distinct forms of prosocial behaviors (i.e., actions intended to benefit others) and most scholars operationalize prosocial behaviors as a global construct. Furthermore, stringent tests of psychometric properties of prosocial behavior measures are rare, especially in countries other than the United States. The present study was designed to examine the structure and functions of a multidimensional measure of prosocial behaviors in youth from Spain. Six hundred and 66 adolescents (46% girls; M age = 15.33 years, SD = 0.47 years) from Valencia, Spain, completed the Prosocial Tendencies Measure-Revised (PTM-R), measures of sympathy, persp…

REVISTA DE HISTORIA DE LA PSICOLOGÍA

Development of Prosocial Behavior in Spanish Adolescents and Its Relations to Parenting Styles

The goal of this chapter is to describe how parenting relates to prosocial development in Spanish adolescents. Although not a lot of work has been done on Spanish youth, the work that has been done has largely paralleled the work done on European American youth. We present evidence from a longitudinal study that examines how support and communication, psychological control, and permissiveness from both mothers and fathers change across adolescence and relate to prosocial behavior in a large sample of Spanish adolescents. Adolescent prosocial behavior was relatively stable. Both mothers and fathers became more permissive and supportive across adolescence, but less psychologically controlling…

The longitudinal relations among dimensions of parenting styles, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, and prosocial behaviors

Developmental scholars assert that parents are important in fostering prosocial behaviors in adolescents, but longitudinal investigations on this topic are limited. Participants consisted of 372 boys and 358 girls with a mean age of 10.84 years (SD = 1.57) at Wave 1 from a mostly middle class community in Spain. Across three successive years, participants completed measures of fathers’ and mothers’ warmth and strict control, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, and self- and peer-reported prosocial behaviors. Results showed that parental warmth, sympathy, and prosocial moral reasoning were predictive of prosocial behaviors. Further analyses showed bidirectional effects such that early proso…

Introducción al monográfico: infancia y adolescencia. Factores de protección y vulnerabilidad

Resumen El monografico que presentamos se centra en la ultima etapa de la infancia y la adolescencia. Pretende abordar desde diferentes estudios empiricos el importante rol de las emociones y la competencia emocional en la conducta adaptada y desadaptada de ninos y adolescentes, asi como los contextos mas representativos en el proceso de socializacion, como es la familia, especialmente a traves de los estilos parentales. Los estudios empiricos que se presentan estan realizados en diferentes paises y aportan una perspectiva transcultural a las variables objeto de estudio y a los resultados obtenidos. La infancia y la adolescencia son etapas clave en el desarrollo. Las emociones, el clima fam…

Parental expectations and prosocial behavior of adolescents from low-income backgrounds. A cross-cultural comparison between three countries: Argentina, Colombia and Spain

Parental expectations are influenced by cultural models, which in turn are subject to a great influence from historically fluctuating features of the socioeconomic background. Parental expectations seem to be linked to children’s social and emotional development in terms of empathy and prosocial behavior. The current study aims to (a) compare low-income adolescents’ perceptions of parental expectations of prosocial and antisocial behavior across three Latin countries (Argentina, Colombia, and Spain), (b) compare the empathy and prosocial behavior between the three countries, (c) compare the prosocial behavior between the three countries, and (d) study the effect of perceived parental expect…

REARING STYLES IN ADOLESCENCE: THEIR RELATION WITH PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR

El trabajo muestra dos estudios realizados con adolescentes españoles cuyo objetivo es estudiar la relación entre los estilos de crianza, el comportamiento prosocial y la empatía, la agresividad, la inestabilidad emocional y la ira desde un doble planteamiento: en uno de los estudios (N = 531) la evaluación de los estilos de crianza la realiza la madre y en el otro (N =782), los adolescentes. Los resultados indican que cuando es la madre quien evalúa los estilos de crianza, éstos alcanzan menor poder predictor en el comportamiento prosocial. La evaluación positiva del hijo/a, el apoyo emocional junto con la coherencia en la aplicación de las normas es el estilo de crianza más relacionado po…

The Structure and Correlates of a Measure of Prosocial Moral Reasoning in Adolescents from Spain

Examined the structure and correlates of a measure of prosocial moral reasoning in a sample of young and middle-aged adolescents. 1556 students (53% male, M age = 13.12, SD = .87) from Valencia, Spain completed paper-and-pencil measures of prosocial moral reasoning (PROM), empathy, prosocial behaviors, and aggression. As expected, a series of confirmatory factor and structural equation modeling analyses revealed a four-factor solution of the PROM to have the best fit (as compared to alternative models) among Spanish youth (across gender and grade). Moreover, higher level and other-oriented forms of prosocial moral reasoning were generally positively related to empathy and prosocial behavior…