Psychological Development and Education ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (3): 437-446.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2026.03.14

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Longitudinal Associations between Parental Emotional Warmth and Adolescent Prosocial Behavior Tendency: The Mediation Role of Upward Social Comparison

ZHAO Taige1, SHENG Liang1,2, GAO Junjie1,3, XIN Sufei1,2,3   

  1. 1. College of Education, Ludong University, Yantai 264025;
    2. Collaborative Innovation Center for the Mental Health of Youth from the Era of Conversion of New and Old Kinetic Energy along the Yellow River Basin, Ludong University, Yantai 264025;
    3. Institute for Education and Treatment of Problematic Youth, Ludong University, Yantai 264025
  • Published:2026-05-15

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Abstract: In order to explore the longitudinal association and internal mechanism between parental emotional warmth and prosocial behavior tendency. This study recruited 1,647 adolescents for a two-wave longitudinal surveys. The results showed that: (1) The bidirectional predictive relationship between parental emotional warmth and prosocial behavior tendency is only valid between parental emotional warmth and anonymous prosocial behavior tendency; (2) Parental emotional warmth promotes the development of adolescent’s public and anonymous prosocial behavior tendency by improving their upward social comparison; (3) The mediating effect of upward social comparison between parental emotional warmth and public prosocial behavior tendency is stronger than its effect between parental emotional warmth and anonymous prosocial behavior tendency. The study shows that parental emotional warmth promotes the development of adolescent prosocial behavior tendency through shaping upward social comparison, and forms a cyclic enhancement model with upward social comparison and anonymous prosocial behavior.

Key words: parental emotional warmth, prosocial behavior tendency, upward social comparison, adolescents

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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