EMPATHY AND PEER DEFENDING: HALF-LONGITUDINAL MEDIATION ROLE OF SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL COMPETENCIES
EMPATHY AND PEER DEFENDING: HALF-LONGITUDINAL MEDIATION ROLE OF SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL COMPETENCIES

Summary/Abstract: Empathy has been studied systematically in relation to school bullying. It is also an important component of bullying prevention and intervention programs aimed at promoting bystander intervention. These interventions encourage peers to intervene and defend the victim or stop the aggressor by increasing empathy levels. Previous research has highlighted that social and emotional competencies (SEC) are essential in both cognitive and affective empathy and prosocial behaviors such as defending. However, few studies have addressed the mechanisms by which empathy facilitates defense. In this study, we tested whether SEC mediate the relationship between first cognitive, then affective empathy and defending in a cross-lagged panel model for a half-longitudinal design. Participants included 414 adolescents with answers at both time points, and 281 with answers only at T1. The mean age of participants at T1 was 12.72 (SD = 1.14), while for T2 it was 12.30 (SD = 0.89). Results confirm the indirect effect of empathy on defending through SEC only for cognitive empathy and not for affective empathy.

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