Empathetic Concern in Emerging Adolescents: The Role of Theory of Mind and Gender Roles

Compassion Scale: factor structure and scale validation in Hong Kong adolescents

Introduction

This study aimed to validate the 16-item Compassion Scale (CS) for use with Hong Kong adolescents. 1,193 secondary school students in grades 7 to 11 (M = 13.80 years, 43.3% female) completed the questionnaire survey.

Methods

We used EFA and CFA to examine the factor structure of the CS and assessed its convergent and discriminant validity through CR, AVE, AIC, and BIC calculations. We also evaluated the concurrent validity by analysing partial correlations between the CS and its subscales with social connectedness and self-efficacy. In addition, we employed multigroup analysis to determine the model fit of the CS across demographic subgroups.

Results

Factor analyses showed a three-factor structure combining mindfulness and kindness into one factor that we named benevolence, together with common humanity and indifference. Satisfactory model fit was found in different subgroups across age, gender, grade, and school type. Findings suggested that girls, on average, showed a higher level of compassionate concern for others than boys, and younger adolescents were more compassionate than their older counterparts. The CS and its subscales were significantly and positively correlated with social connectedness and self-efficacy, supporting concurrent validity.

Discussion

The findings signify the unique sociocultural context in Hong Kong, which is deeply affected by Chinese traditions, Western individualism, and neoliberal ideals. Overall, the study provides robust support for the CS as a reliable and valid measure for cross-cultural research on compassion and yields evidence-based implications for compassion interventions.

Do Boys Empathize Less than Girls? Exploring the Links Among Empathy, Gender and Sexist Attitudes in Adolescents

(1) Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a pervasive issue, particularly among adolescents. Its prevalence is still high despite intervention efforts, especially for younger generations. Empathy and sexism are factors linked with IPV that have shown gender differences. This study focuses on how gender moderates the association of empathy and sexist attitudes among adolescents in Spain; (2) Methods: A two-stage stratified cluster sampling method for collecting data from 516 adolescents (219 boys, 297 girls) aged 12-18 years was used. Participants completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Hierarchical multiple regression analyzed the moderating role of gender in the relation between empathy and ambivalent sexism; (3) Results: Boys exhibited higher sexism levels than girls. Perspective taking negatively predicted hostile sexism. Empathic concern positively predicted hostile and benevolent sexism. Significant gender-specific patterns emerged: more empathic concern was linked with increased hostile sexism in boys; higher perspective taking was linked with increased benevolent sexism in boys, but was lower in girls; (4) Conclusions: There is a complex interplay among empathy, gender, and sexism, suggesting that IPV prevention programs should be tailored differently for boys and girls by considering broader socio-political contexts, addressing traditional gender norms, and promoting gender equality.

The role of social cognition in mental health trajectories from childhood to adolescence

We investigated the association between an aspect of Theory of Mind in childhood, false-belief understanding, and trajectories of internalising (emotional and peer) and externalising (conduct and hyperactivity) problems in childhood and adolescence. The sample was 8408 children from the UK's Millennium Cohort Study, followed at ages 5, 7, 11, 14, and 17 years. Social cognitive abilities were measured at 5 and 7 years through a vignette version of the Sally-Anne task administered by an unfamiliar assessor in a socially demanding dyadic interaction. Internalising and externalising problems were measured via the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire at 7-17 years. Using latent growth modelling, and after controlling for sex, ethnicity, maternal education, verbal ability, and time-varying family income, we found that superior social cognitive abilities predicted a decrease in emotional problems over time. In sex-stratified analyses, they predicted decreasing conduct problem trajectories in females and lower levels of conduct problems at baseline in males.

A study of the mechanism for intergenerational transmission of gender roles in single-parent families

The divorce rate in China is rising yearly, and the concept of marriage is changing, triggering many social topics related to single parents. Among them, gender-awareness education for children in single-parent families is particularly worthy of attention, as there has been insufficient exploration of how parents transfer their gender role concepts to their children. This study conducted in-depth interviews with 58 single parents and children from 29 families in Suzhou and constructed the mechanism for intergenerational transmission of gender roles in single-parent families based on grounded theory. It found that single parents' gender stereotypes, the starting point of the intergenerational transmission mechanism, have been diluted. It affords them a more enlightened attitude towards child-rearing style, and they expect more equality in the gender role of their offspring. However, in some parents' actual parenting process, when the children's sexualization behaviours exceed their acceptance range, they will communicate with children in an authoritative and didactic way to "correct" the children's behaviour. In addition to direct verbal instruction, parents' expectations of their children's gender roles will be implicitly conveyed through various parent-child interactions in daily life to affect the formation of their children's gender roles. In the intergenerational transmission of gender roles, external people (such as grandparents, teachers and peer groups) have horizontal socialisation effects on children to modify or strengthen the results of gender education from their parents. Under the comprehensive influence of the above factors, the children's gender roles are finally determined. These studies expand previous theories and studies and have significant theoretical and practical implications.

The moderating role of spirituality and gender in Canadian and Iranian emerging adolescents’ theory of mind and prosocial behavior

Introduction

While research has found a link between ToM and prosociality in terms of caring and helping others which may also vary across cultures, the moderating role of spirituality and culture of this association in emerging adolescence has received little attention.

Methods

The current study empirically “examined” the role of spirituality and gender in relation to ToM and prosocial behavior in Canadian and Iranian emerging adolescents. A total of 300 (153 girls) emerging adolescents (M = 11.502, SD = 2.228) were recruited from Montreal, Canada and Karaj, Iran. A series of double moderation analysis and ANOVA was conducted.

Results and discussion

Results indicated the difference between direct and indirect influences of ToM and its interactions with culture, gender, and spirituality on prosocial behavior. This implies an emerging complex framework which suggests the dynamic nonlinear interactions between these factors. Implications for youth’s social-emotional understanding will be discussed.

Cortisol awakening response and testosterone jointly affect adolescents' theory of mind

Adolescence is a critical period for the maturation of neurobiological processes and hormone secretion. Recent studies on the dual-hormone hypothesis have indicated that basal cortisol and testosterone jointly affect dominant and aggressive behavior among adolescents and adults. Whether this hypothesis applies to prosocial-related understanding of others' mental states remains unclear. The present study investigated associations between basal testosterone, basal cortisol (and cortisol awakening response [CAR]), and the cognitive/affective theory of mind (ToM) in 243 adolescents (67.9 % male, aged 14 to 17 years, M_age = 16.09, standard deviation = 0.62). Cognitive ToM (cToM) and affective ToM (aToM) were assessed with a cartoon story reasoning task: In the cToM condition, participants viewed a comic strip story and needed to predict what would happen based on a character's intentions, and in the aToM condition, they viewed a comic strip of two characters interacting and needed to think about what would make the protagonist feel better. The results showed that basal testosterone and basal cortisol did not interact with each other to affect the performance of ToM, either in terms of ToM accuracy or response speed. However, under the condition of low CAR, testosterone is associated with the fast performance of cToM, although the interaction of testosterone and CAR occurred only in female adolescents. Overall, our data provide new evidence for the dual-hormone hypothesis and further extend the hypothesis to social understanding.