The Relationship of Social Health and Parents' Psychological Capital with Adolescents' Prosocial Behavior: The Mediating Role of Empathy

The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of empathy in the relationship between parent's social health and psychological capital and prosocial behavior in adolescents. In this descriptive-correlational study, 369 adolescent high school students (within the age range of 15-18) in Tehran (180 girls and 189 boys) were randomly selected using cluster sampling method. They subsequently filled Prosocial Behavior Scale (Penner, Fritzche, Craiger & Freifeld, 1995) and Empathy Scale (Bryant, 1982). The parents (211 mother and 158 father) filled the Psychological capital Scale (Lutanz, Oliwi, Avolio & Norman, 2007) and Social health Scale (Keye, 2004) questionnaires. Finally, data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling. The results showed that high level of adolescents' empathy and high levels of social health and psychological capital of parents would increase the possibility of prosocial behavior in adolescents. On the other hand, empathy mediates the relationship between social health and the psychological capital of parents and the adolescents’ prosocial behavior. Findings indicates the importance of setting educational programs for promoting empathy and paying attention to the important role of parents as influential factors on adolescents in order to increase prosocial behavior. This factor plays a decisive role in reducing future problems such as antisocial behavior and delinquency in adolescents.