The Moderating Role of Empathy in the Association Between Parental Support and Adolescent Aggressive and Delinquent Behavior

Abstract

The present two-wave longitudinal study addressed the role of affective empathy and parental support in aggressive and delinquent behavior in a sample of 323 adolescents (158 boys, 165 girls). Self-report questionnaires were used to assess affective empathy, perceived support from parents, delinquency, and aggression. Guided by theories on children's differential susceptibility to socialization, we expected adolescents with different levels of empathy to vary in their responsiveness to parental support. In agreement with our hypothesis, empathy moderated the relation of perceived parental support with aggressive and delinquent behavior. Controlling for the effect of gender and for the stability of aggression and delinquency, higher perceived parental support was predictive of lower levels of aggression at age 15, but only for adolescents high in empathy. Remarkably, adolescents low in empathy not only appeared to benefit less from parental support, but even showed more aggression and delinquency at age 15 when they perceived their parents to be more supportive at age 14.

Parenting and Conduct Problems: Moderation by Child Empathy

“…Following this argument, higher levels of positive parenting should be more strongly related to lower levels of conduct problems among children with higher levels of empathy. However, contrary to previous research (Van der Graaff et al, 2012) and our expectation, in this study mother praise was significantly and negatively related to child conduct problems only at lower levels of child empathy, and this relationship weakened as child empathy increased. This suggests that it was the children with lower levels of empathy who were are most likely to benefit from positive parenting behaviors, while this aspect of parenting may be less important among children who are already high in empathic behavior.…”

“…To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the moderating role of child empathy on the relation between parenting and child conduct problems using observational measures. Moreover, this study extends the results of previous research (de Kemp et al, 2007;Van der Graaff et al, 2012) by including school-aged children. Lastly, our participants were recruited from various sources (e.g., community, school, and clinic) and had varying levels of ADHD symptoms; thereby representing a continuum of risk for conduct problems.…”

Prosocial reasoning and emotions in young offenders and non-offenders

“…As for the role played by empathy, although it appears as an inhibitor of aggressive behaviour, both in its cognitive and affective components in the non-offender sample, in the young offender sample only perspective taking reaches predictor power, meaning that the concern for the discomfort of another person and to share their emotions are not feelings in the young offender when deciding aggressive behaviour. These results correlate with other research that establishes the relationship between empathy and antisocial and aggressive behaviour in childhood and adolescence (Arce, Fariña, & Vázquez, 2011;Fariña, Arce, & Novo, 2008;Mayberry & Espelage, 2007;Van der Graaff et al, 2012;Wang et al, 2016) and differ from those which suggest that they are unrelated constructs.…”

“…The results show that there are no differences based on sex in any of the levels of prosocial moral reasoning; however, as expected, girls are more empathic than boys (Mestre et al, 2009;Van der Graaff et al, 2012;Van der Graaff, Branje, De Wied, Hawk, & Van Lier, 2014), even though the empathic concern is only higher in girls who have not committed a crime; in the young offenders sample, it stops being a prominent characteristic in women, who would not have this inhibitor of the behaviour to harm. Differences have not been established in the other evaluated emotions.…”

Family‐supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) and work‐family conflict: The role of stereotype content, supervisor gender, and gender role beliefs

“…Our research suggests that it is therefore important for managers to pay attention to their family supportive behaviors. In other words, it is important for managers to seem truly empathic and caring when engaging in supportive behaviors, which is consistent with the broader literature on social support (Cohen & Wills, 1985; Van der Graff, Branje, De Wied, & Meeus, 2012).…”