AUTHOR=Xu Yanfeng , Chen Sishi , Su Xiaojie , Yu Delin 

TITLE=Cognitive reappraisal and empathy chain-mediate the association between relative deprivation and prosocial behavior in adolescents

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 14 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1238308

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1238308

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=Relative deprivation is one of the factors that influences the development of personality and behavior. However, it is still unclear whether and how relative deprivation decreases the prosocial behavior of adolescents. This study aimed to examine the association between relative deprivation and adolescent prosocial behavior and the role of emotion regulation strategies and empathy in modifying this association. The present study included 609 secondary school students (M = 15.42 years, SD = 0.653) in Fujian Province, China. All participants completed the Relative Deprivation Questionnaire, Emotion Regulation Scale, the Basic Empathy Scale, and Prosocial Behavior Scale. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 and Mplus 7.4. Relative deprivation was negatively correlated with cognitive reappraisal, but positively correlated with expressive suppression. Cognitive reappraisal was positively correlated with empathy and prosocial behavior, but expressive suppression was not. Empathy was positively correlated with prosocial behavior. Relative deprivation decreased prosocial behavior through (a) cognitive reappraisal, (b) empathy, and (c) chain mediation of cognitive reappraisal and empathy. No significant mediating effect of expressive suppression was found. The results indicate that relative deprivation decreases adolescent prosocial behavior and that cognitive reappraisal and empathy are the potential psychological mechanisms that affect the association between relative deprivation and adolescent prosocial behavior.