Family Expressiveness and Adolescent Empathy: The Mediating Role of Emotional Awareness
Keywords:
Family Expressiveness, Emotional Awareness, Adolescent EmpathyAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to examine the mediating role of emotional awareness in the relationship between family expressiveness and adolescent empathy.
Methods and Materials: A descriptive correlational research design was used, involving 400 Mexican adolescents selected based on the Morgan and Krejcie sampling table. Data were collected using three standardized self-report instruments: the Family Expressiveness Questionnaire (FEQ), the Emotional Awareness Questionnaire (EAQ), and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) for empathy. Pearson correlation analysis was conducted using SPSS-27 to explore bivariate associations, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed using AMOS-21 to assess direct, indirect, and total effects among the variables and test the hypothesized mediation model.
Findings: The results showed significant positive correlations between family expressiveness and emotional awareness (r = .46, p < .001), family expressiveness and adolescent empathy (r = .38, p < .001), and emotional awareness and adolescent empathy (r = .53, p < .001). The structural model demonstrated a good fit to the data (χ²/df = 1.66, RMSEA = 0.041, CFI = 0.99). Direct effects from family expressiveness to emotional awareness (B = 0.51, β = 0.46, p < .001), from family expressiveness to empathy (B = 0.24, β = 0.28, p < .001), and from emotional awareness to empathy (B = 0.44, β = 0.39, p < .001) were statistically significant. The indirect effect of family expressiveness on empathy via emotional awareness was also significant (B = 0.22, β = 0.18, p < .001), supporting partial mediation.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that emotionally expressive family environments foster adolescents' empathy partly by enhancing their emotional awareness. Emotional awareness serves as a key developmental mechanism through which family dynamics shape prosocial emotional outcomes in adolescence.
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