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

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: China; gender; parental psychological control; prosocial behavior; self-efficacy.

Figure 1

(A) diagrams of theoretical model; (B) diagrams of statistical model. Note. SE: self-efficacy; a: effect of parental psychological control on self-efficacy; b1: effect of self-efficacy on prosocial behavior; b2: effect of gender on prosocial behavior; b3: interaction effect of gender and self-efficacy on prosocial behavior; c′: effect of parental psychological control on prosocial behavior; * means a multiplication.