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Adolescents' responses to the distress of others: the influence of multiple attachment figures via empathic concern
Despite its importance for the successful maturation of adolescents, relatively little is known about the development of prosocial behaviour during this life period. Attachment theory, although largely absent from the literature in this area, provides an informative theoretical description of how pr...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Department of Psychology
2017
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| _version_ | 1867613274648870912 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Profe, Wade Byron |
| author2 | Wild, Lauren |
| author_browse | Profe, Wade Byron Wild, Lauren |
| author_facet | Wild, Lauren Profe, Wade Byron |
| author_sort | Profe, Wade Byron |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Despite its importance for the successful maturation of adolescents, relatively little is known about the development of prosocial behaviour during this life period. Attachment theory, although largely absent from the literature in this area, provides an informative theoretical description of how prosocial behaviours in response to the distress of others may be socialized. The aim of this study was to investigate the relative influence of attachment security to mothers, fathers, closest grandparents, and friends on the response to others' distress among early adolescents, via the mediation of empathic concern. Cross-sectional, quantitative survey data from 520 adolescents (aged 11-14) from 9 schools in Cape Town were used in the analyses. Zero-order correlations confirmed the expected positive relationships between attachment security to all four figures and empathic concern, as well as self-reported prosocial behaviour, but not for teacher-reported prosocial behaviour. Structural Equation Modelling revealed that empathic concern completely mediated the relation between attachment security and both self- and teacher-reported prosocial behaviour. Furthermore, when controlling for attachment security to mothers, fathers, closest grandparents and friends simultaneously, peer attachment emerged as the only significant indirect influence on self-reported prosocial behaviour. For teacher-reported prosocial behaviour, however, the indirect effect of friend attachment failed to reach significance. The results of this study provide theoretical insight into the influence of secure attachments on prosocial behaviour, and highlight the importance of supportive same-age peer relationships in adolescence. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22999 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:33:31.121Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateRange | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | Department of Psychology |
| publisherStr | Department of Psychology |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/22999 Adolescents' responses to the distress of others: the influence of multiple attachment figures via empathic concern Profe, Wade Byron Wild, Lauren Psychological Research Despite its importance for the successful maturation of adolescents, relatively little is known about the development of prosocial behaviour during this life period. Attachment theory, although largely absent from the literature in this area, provides an informative theoretical description of how prosocial behaviours in response to the distress of others may be socialized. The aim of this study was to investigate the relative influence of attachment security to mothers, fathers, closest grandparents, and friends on the response to others' distress among early adolescents, via the mediation of empathic concern. Cross-sectional, quantitative survey data from 520 adolescents (aged 11-14) from 9 schools in Cape Town were used in the analyses. Zero-order correlations confirmed the expected positive relationships between attachment security to all four figures and empathic concern, as well as self-reported prosocial behaviour, but not for teacher-reported prosocial behaviour. Structural Equation Modelling revealed that empathic concern completely mediated the relation between attachment security and both self- and teacher-reported prosocial behaviour. Furthermore, when controlling for attachment security to mothers, fathers, closest grandparents and friends simultaneously, peer attachment emerged as the only significant indirect influence on self-reported prosocial behaviour. For teacher-reported prosocial behaviour, however, the indirect effect of friend attachment failed to reach significance. The results of this study provide theoretical insight into the influence of secure attachments on prosocial behaviour, and highlight the importance of supportive same-age peer relationships in adolescence. 2017-01-24T11:39:13Z 2017-01-24T11:39:13Z 2016 Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22999 eng application/pdf Department of Psychology Faculty of Humanities University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Psychological Research Profe, Wade Byron Adolescents' responses to the distress of others: the influence of multiple attachment figures via empathic concern |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Adolescents' responses to the distress of others: the influence of multiple attachment figures via empathic concern |
| title_full | Adolescents' responses to the distress of others: the influence of multiple attachment figures via empathic concern |
| title_fullStr | Adolescents' responses to the distress of others: the influence of multiple attachment figures via empathic concern |
| title_full_unstemmed | Adolescents' responses to the distress of others: the influence of multiple attachment figures via empathic concern |
| title_short | Adolescents' responses to the distress of others: the influence of multiple attachment figures via empathic concern |
| title_sort | adolescents responses to the distress of others the influence of multiple attachment figures via empathic concern |
| topic | Psychological Research |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/22999 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT profewadebyron adolescentsresponsestothedistressofotherstheinfluenceofmultipleattachmentfiguresviaempathicconcern |