Understanding the Relationship between Parental Psychological Control and Prosocial Behavior in Children in China: The Role of Self-Efficacy and Gender

Wangqian Fu, Qianqian Pan (), Weida Zhang and Lei Zhang
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Wangqian Fu: Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Qianqian Pan: Centre for Research in Pedagogy and Practice, Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Weida Zhang: School of Education, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
Lei Zhang: Department of Politics, Beijing Health Vocational College, Beijing 100053, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-15

Abstract: Objectives: Prosocial behavior is essential for individuals’ development, and the study aims to analyze the relationship between parental psychological control and prosocial behavior. Method: The current study investigated the relationships among Paternal Psychological Control (endogenous variable), General Self-Efficacy (mediator), and Prosocial Behaviors (exogenous endogenous variable) via a moderated mediation modeling approach (gender as the moderator). A total of 1822 Chinese students aged from 7- to 17-year-old (M age = 12.4 years old, SD age = 1.89, 48.6% girls) were included in the current study. Results: After controlling participants’ age, the only child status, family income, and parent’s education level, results revealed that higher levels of parental control were associated with lower levels of students’ self-efficacy, which, in turn, reduced students’ prosocial behavior intention. Moreover, the relationship between self-efficacy and prosocial behavior intention was moderated by students’ gender, where the positive effects of self-efficacy on prosocial behavior intentions were reduced in girls. Conclusion: Findings highlight the importance of parental psychological control for supporting children’s self-efficacy to promote prosocial behaviors on different gender groups.

Keywords: parental psychological control; self-efficacy; prosocial behavior; gender; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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