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Longitudinal associations between parent–child attachment and prosocial behaviour: the roles of empathy and gratitude

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Background Parent–child attachment is assumed to support adolescent prosocial behaviour through empathy and gratitude, but most evidence is cross-sectional and rarely separates stable between-person differences from within-person change. This study examined whether longitudinal associations among these constructs match the proposed sequential account and whether they hold within persons. Methods Chinese junior secondary students ( N = 557 linked across three waves) completed an identical self-report battery on all four constructs. Longitudinal measurement invariance was tested for each construct. A random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) separated between-person from within-person variance, and a latent sequential indirect-effect model with autoregressive controls was estimated by full-information maximum likelihood with 5,000 bias-corrected bootstrap resamples. Two prespecified robustness analyses varied the placement of gratitude and excluded outliers. Results Metric invariance held for all constructs; full scalar invariance failed for prosocial behaviour (ΔRMSEA = 0.021). Random intercepts held 64.5 to 70.9% of total variance, and no hypothesised within-person cross-lagged path was significant (attachment to empathy β = 0.076, p = 0.561; empathy to gratitude β = 0.140, p = 0.160; gratitude to prosocial behaviour β = −0.043, p = 0.694). In the latent model (CFI = 0.974, RMSEA = 0.046), attachment predicted empathy (B = 0.100, 95% CI [0.032, 0.163]), empathy predicted gratitude (B = 0.171 [0.015, 0.329]) and gratitude predicted prosocial behaviour (B = 0.376 [0.241, 0.545]). The sequential indirect association was small (B = 0.0064 [0.0010, 0.0202]; 5.8% of the total indirect association), was not reproduced when gratitude was placed at Wave 2, and its empathy-to-gratitude component lost significance after outliers were excluded. The two prospective two-link within-person indirect products identifiable in the RI-CLPM were also not distinguishable from zero. Conclusion The data support stable longitudinal associations, particularly those involving gratitude, but only tentative evidence for a sequential pathway and none for a within-person developmental chain. A four-wave design placing each construct on a separate occasion is needed to test the mechanism.

Source: Frontiers in Psychology

DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1970907

Authors: Xiaoxue Chen, Jia Xu, Anni Chen, Leigang Zhang

Institution: Shaoxing University

Language: English

Topic: Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

Subfield: Clinical Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,801