ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Personality and Social Psychology
Effects of self-acceptance on prosocial behavior: the mediating role of self-esteem
Provisionally accepted
- Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
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Objective:Prosocial behavior is significant for individual and social development. Although self-acceptance and self-esteem are considered important factors influencing prosocial behavior, how self-acceptance affects prosocial behavior and the role that self-esteem plays in it are unclear. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the relationships among self-acceptance, self-esteem and prosocial behavior and to verify the mediating role of self-esteem between self-acceptance and prosocial behavior. Methods:This study was divided into three stages: first, interviews were used to construct the relationships among the three variables; second, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to establish a preliminary model; and finally, a six-month follow-up study was conducted with college students at a medical school in Shanxi, where cross-lagged analyses were used to test the direct effect of self-acceptance on prosocial behavior and the mediating role of self-esteem. Results: (1) There was a significant positive correlation between self-acceptance, self-esteem and prosocial behavior; (2) self-esteem fully mediated the relationship between self-acceptance and prosocial behavior; and (3) This study validated the mediating model in which self-acceptance indirectly promotes prosocial behavior by enhancing self-esteem among medical university students, suggesting the importance of cultivating self-acceptance and self-esteem for promoting prosocial behavior in university students.
Keywords: self-acceptance, self-esteem, Prosocial Behavior, longitudinal tracing, Cross-lagging
Received: 09 Jun 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 LI, Guo and Wu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ying Wu, 1038554255@qq.com
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