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 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