An earthquake is a major natural traumatic event that has a serious negative impact on human behavioral response and mental health (Cisler et al., 2011; Ehring, Razik, & Emmelkamp, 2011; Feder et al., 2013). Researchers have focused on the psychological reactions of earthquake survivors, such as depression disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety disorder (Ehlers & Clark, 2000; Guo et al., 2018; Cheng et al., 2013). However, only a few researchers have focused on the behavioral responses of adolescents who experienced traumatic events in earthquakes. Adolescence is the key period of a human’s lifelong physical and mental development, and the impact of traumatic events on adolescents is enormous and far-reaching (Steinberg, 2005). Therefore, studying the internal mechanism of adolescent behavioral response after traumatic earthquake events is of great significance.
Antisocial Behavior and Prosocial Behavior
When individuals experience traumatic events, they often have negative behavioral reactions, and antisocial behavior is one of the representative negative behavioral reactions (Ford et al., 2012). Antisocial behavior is a pattern of behavior characterized by neglect and violation of the interests of others, such as assault, vandalism, deception, and theft (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Social information processing model (Holtzworth-Munroe, 1992) points out that when individuals experience serious natural disasters, they often have unreasonable beliefs, such as that the surrounding environment is hostile and threatening. These irrational beliefs can cause individuals to exhibit antisocial behaviors such as aggression and destructive behavior (Taft et al., 2012). Most empirical studies also support the view that children and adolescents may exhibit different antisocial behaviors after a major earthquake disaster (Cheng et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2020).
Meanwhile, Vollhardt and Staub (2011) found that after an earthquake, individuals are more likely to actively participate in prosocial behaviors such as rescuing, donating money, and providing volunteer services. These prosocial behaviors have positive and important significance for the mutual aid reconstruction after an earthquake. Vollhardt (2009) described this phenomenon as the altruistic behavior that comes from experiencing suffering.
Prosocial behavior and antisocial behavior often coexist in groups that have experienced catastrophic traumatic events (Eron & Huesmann, 1984; Gomà-i-Freixanet, 1995). Therefore, Are there common factors and underlying mechanisms that influence both of these behavior patterns? This study includes prosocial and antisocial behaviors to provide new insights for psychological intervention in post-earthquake adolescent behavioral patterns.
Parental Attachment affects Antisocial Behavior and Prosocial Behavior
For adolescents, the family environment can promote the development of their social function and shape their behavioral pattern (Hirschi, 1969). Parental attachment, which is defined as the emotional bond between adolescents and their parents (Bowlby, 1969), is an important part of the family environment. It can provide supportive resources for adolescents to cope with the stress caused by traumatic events (Tian et al., 2018). Moreover, parental attachment may play an important role in the prosocial behaviors and antisocial behaviors of individuals who have experienced catastrophic traumatic events.
In terms of the relationship between parental attachment and prosocial behavior, attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) suggested that individuals are born with caregiving systems. These systems can guide people to pay more attention to the feelings and needs of others and can encourage individuals to provide protection and support to those in need (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007; Mikulincer et al., 2005). High levels of parental attachment sets the important psychological foundation for a caregiving system that enables individuals to feel safe in providing help without worrying excessively about the internal resources consumed. Hence, High levels of parental attachment promotes individuals’ prosocial behavior (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007; Richman et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2017).
Previous theories and studies have provided evidence for the relationship between attachment and antisocial behavior. According to social control theory (Hirschi, 1969), antisocial behavior is low in families with strong affective ties, because adolescents who are strongly attached to their parents are more likely to care about the normative expectations of their parents, which are born against antisocial behavior. Existing empirical studies suggest that parental attachment can significantly reduce the level of antisocial behavior in adolescents (Arbona & Power, 2003; Thompson & Gullone, 2008; Bekker et al., 2007).
Although previous studies have generally shown that parental attachment as an environmental factor can influence adolescent behavior patterns, only a few studies have explored the potential mechanisms of parental attachment on prosocial and antisocial behaviors in the context of natural disasters. In previous studies, one potential mechanism of particular interest in understanding the links between parental attachment and behaviors is empathy (Carlo et al., 2012).
Mediating Role of Empathy
As a personality trait, empathy is the ability to accurately feel the feelings of others and understand the meaning of those feelings (Kalisch, 1973). Regarding the association between parental attachment and empathy, attachment theory provides evidence that empathic responses to self and others are based on positive internal working models (Stern & Cassidy, 2018). Individuals with high levels of parental attachment, that is, with positive internal working model about themselves and their environment, perceived others with greater understanding and acceptance. This ability enables them to pay attention to the feelings and needs of others and respond empathically when they feel the suffering of others (Kestenbaum, 1989; Bretherton & Munholland, 2008). Research also supports the relationship between parental attachment and empathy (Schoeps et al., 2020; Thompson & Gullone, 2008).
Furthermore, empathy has been indicated as an important predictor of prosocial behaviors and antisocial behaviors (McGinley & Carlo, 2012). According to the empathy altruism hypothesis proposed by Batson (1987), when individuals witness others’ misfortune, a high level of empathy will cause them to feel compassion and encourage them to implement prosocial behaviors. In a study of adolescents who had experienced an earthquake, empathy was found to have a positive effect on prosocial behavior (Wang & Wu, 2020). However, the relationship between empathy and antisocial behavior from previous studies is not consistent. Some scholars have noted, for example, that feelings of concern for others would inhibit intention to hurt others. Thus, empathy may be expected to negatively predict antisocial behaviors (Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998; Carlo et al., 2012). However, some researchers have suggested that individuals with high empathic abilities are more likely to experience negative emotions when they perceive others’ distress. These negative emotions, if not properly regulated, will increase the occurrence of antisocial behavior (Gill & Calkins, 2003). Therefore, the effect of empathy on antisocial behavior needs to be further explored in trauma samples.
In addition to the personality factor of empathy, what other psychological processes play a role in the relationship between parental attachment, prosocial behavior, and antisocial behavior? Gilbert's theory of emotional regulation system suggests that early parental attachment can cultivate individuals' level of self-compassion (Gilbert, 2014), and the ability of self-compassion will further affect individuals' psychological and behavioral outcomes (Pietromonaco & Barrett, 2000; Jiang et al., 2017). Therefore, self-compassion may work as an underlying mechanism that plays a role between parental attachment and post-traumatic behavioral responses.
Mediating Role of Self-compassion
Self-compassion is defined as an individual’s tendency to understand, forgive, and not judge themselves in the face of suffering (Neff, 2003a). Conceptually, self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness are the positive components of self-compassion, representing an individual's tolerance and understanding of himself, calmness towards suffering, and rational and clear attitude towards the current predicament. While the three dimensions of self-judgment, isolation and over-identification are negative components, which are a tendency to be extremely harsh to self and excessively exaggerated to pain (Neff, 2003a). Self-compassion is commonly measured as the sum of all items of the Self-compassion Scale (SCS; Neff, 2003b) after reverse scoring the items that assessed negative components. However, reliance on the SCS total score as an indicator of self-compassion is debatable. The positive and negative components of self-compassion are relatively independent in structure and have different effects on an individual’s mental health (Brenner et al., 2017; Muris & Petrocchi, 2016; Muris et al., 2018). Furthermore, Mackintosh et al. (2018) pointed out that future studies on the relationship between attachment, self-compassion, and psychopathology must account for the different dimensions of self-compassion. Therefore, we divide self-compassion into positive self-compassion and negative self-compassion in this study.
The relationship between parental attachment and self-compassion has been supported by earlier theories. Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969, 1979) suggested that early life experiences of attachment images shape key internal working models of the self. Individuals with positive attachment are more likely to form positive internal working models of self, because they fully feel the security and support provided by attachment figures. This security enables individuals to form values worthy of being cared about and to concern and love themselves when they are suffering (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2007). Thus, high quality parental attachment may enable individuals to employ strategies of positive self-compassion when experiencing negative events (Homan, 2018; Jiang et al., 2017). In terms of the relationship between attachment and negative self-compassion, those with a higher level of insecure attachment are likely to develop a negative view of self (Pietromonaco et al., 2000) and to be self-critical in suffering (Cantazaro & Wei, 2010). Naturally, self-criticism and blame are important manifestations of negative self-compassion. In an empirical study of adults, low levels of parental attachment was found to be a significantly positive predictor of negative self-compassion (Brophy et al., 2020).
As an emotional regulation strategy, self-compassion can further influence individuals’ post-traumatic behavioral responses. In terms of the relationship between positive self-compassion and prosocial behavior, a person with positive self-compassion is expected to be more likely to recognize when another is suffering from negative events. This ability is an important step in showing prosocial behavior (Atkins & Parker, 2012). Researchers suggest that building the capacity for caring and accepting oneself in suffering can help extend compassion to others. Such capacity makes individuals more likely to help others when they witness their suffering (Hofmann, et al., 2011). Thus, positive self-compassion may facilitate prosocial behavior (Longe, 2009; Crocker & Canevello, 2008; Liu et al., 2021). However, individuals with high negative self-compassion may focus on their own painful emotions and interpersonal estrangement from others, which may lead to social withdrawal and loneliness, neither of which are conducive to engaging in prosocial behaviors (Charmaz, 1980; Kahn, 1965).
Self-compassion and antisocial behavior are also correlated. In the face of setbacks and failures, positive self-compassion can reduce the risk of antisocial behavior by alleviating negative emotional reactions such as anger and impulsivity (Leary, 2007; Neff & Beretvas, 2013). In contrast, people with higher levels of negative self-compassion tend to make excessive demands to others as well as being hard on themselves (Kahn, 1965). If the demands and expectations of others are not met, feelings of dissatisfaction, anger and hostility will arise, which may lead to aggressive behavior (Milrod, 1972; Wilson, 1985).
Although empathy and self-compassion are potential mediators of the relation between parental attachment, prosocial behavior, and antisocial behavior, these two mediators have a combined relationship. Theoretically, when a person with a high level of empathy witnesses someone else’s misfortune, his or her own painful emotions may be triggered (Loggia et al., 2008). Moreover, self-compassion naturally arises from the affective component of empathy when one desires to alleviate the negative emotions through self-regulation (Steffen & Masters, 2005). Existing studies have demonstrated a positive association between empathy and positive self-compassion (Marshall et al., 2020; Rachel et al., 2018). Although a few studies have examined the relationship between empathy and negative self-compassion, evidence shows an association between empathy and variables with concepts similar to negative self-compassion. Heym et al. (2019) mentioned in their study that individuals with high levels of empathy may be at risk of over-identification due to excessive emotional involvement when witnessing others’ misfortune. However, in a study of medical workers, empathy was found to be significantly negatively correlated with self-judgment (Beaumont et al., 2016). Therefore, the possible effects of empathy on negative self-compassion have not been consistent in previous studies. The relationship between these two variables needs to be explored in future studies.
Present study
Empathy and self-compassion can theoretically mediate the relationship of parental attachment with prosocial/antisocial behavior. However, to our knowledge, no empirical study has simultaneously examined the mediating roles of empathy, positive self-compassion, and negative self-compassion in the relationship between parental attachment and prosocial/antisocial behavior. Therefore, the main objective of the current study is to examine how adolescents’ parental attachment after the Jiuzhaigou earthquake predicted prosocial/antisocial behavior by including empathy, positive self-compassion, and negative compassion as mediating variables.