The Role of Empathy in Chinese Adolescents? Preventive Health Behavior During COVID-19

作者：Qu, Yang^*; Chen, Bin-Bin^*; Yang, Beiming; Zhu, Yuanfei

来源：Journal of Adolescent Health, 2022, 70(5): 729-735.

DOI：10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.12.021

• Adolescents
• COVID-19
• Empathy
• Health behavior
• Prosocial motivation

Purpose: Preventive health behavior during COVID-19 protects not only oneself but also the welfare of others. However, little attention has been paid to prosocial motivation in adolescents, who are often viewed as selfish and egocentric. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore the role of empathy in adolescents' preventive health behavior using longitudinal data. Methods: A total of 442 Chinese adolescents (mean age of youth 1/4 13.35 years; 49.5% girls and 50.5% boys) completed two-wave longitudinal surveys over the span of two months during the empathic concern, perspective taking, and concern for personal health. At both T1 and T2, parbehavior over time (p < .01). However, greater empathic concern also predicted adolescents' greater for personal health did not predict their health behavior or worry over time.

• 单位
  y; 西北大学; 复旦大学