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Reciprocal Relations Among Self‐Efficacy Beliefs and Prosociality Across Time
Author(s) -
Alessandri Guido,
Caprara Gian Vittorio,
Eisenberg Nancy,
Steca Patrizia
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2009.00580.x
Subject(s) - prosocial behavior , psychology , empathy , self efficacy , psychological intervention , developmental psychology , reciprocal , social psychology , empathic concern , longitudinal study , perspective taking , linguistics , philosophy , statistics , mathematics , psychiatry
The present study examined the longitudinal relations between individuals' prosociality and their self‐efficacy beliefs in regard to emotional regulation and responding empathically to others' needs. The participants were 244 females and 222 males with a mean age of 17 years ( SD =1.5) at T1, 19 years ( SD =1.4) at T2, and 21 years ( SD =1.6) at T3. The findings corroborated the posited paths of relations assigning empathic self‐efficacy a major role in predicting the level of individuals' prosociality. Empathic self‐efficacy beliefs mediated the relations of regulative emotional self‐efficacy beliefs to prosocial tendencies such as caring, sharing, helping, and empathic concern toward others. The posited conceptual model accounted for a significant portion of variance in prosociality and has implications for interventions designed to promote and sustain prosociality.