Modeling Moral Behavior Based on Parent-Child Interaction and Perceived Social Support with the Mediation of Cultural Intelligence in High School Girls in Tehran

This study aims to model the relationship between parent-child interaction and perceived social support with moral behavior, mediated by cultural intelligence, in adolescent female students in Tehran.

Methods and Materials: 

The research method is descriptive and correlational. The statistical population of this study includes all female high school students aged 12 to 16, with a total number of students in the academic year 2022-2023. Four hundred students were selected as the sample using cluster sampling. Data were collected using the Moral Behavior Questionnaire by Sabat and colleagues, the Perceived Social Support Questionnaire by Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, and Farley (1988), and the Cultural Intelligence Questionnaire by Ang and Earley (2004). Data analysis was performed using SPSS.22 and Smart PLS software, employing descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression, and structural equation modeling.

The research results showed that the model explaining the parent-child interaction, perceived social support, and moral behavior with the mediation of cultural intelligence has a good fit. The results indicated that parent-child interaction has a direct effect on moral behavior (P<0.01). It was also found that perceived social support has a direct effect on moral behavior (P<0.01).

The results confirmed that parent-child interaction does not affect moral behavior through the mediating role of cultural intelligence. Finally, other findings showed that perceived social support indirectly affects moral behavior through the mediating role of cultural intelligence.