Filial piety is widely recognized as a key family value in Chinese society, less is known about how it relates to adolescents' prosocial behaviour. Drawing on the Dual Filial Piety Model, the present study focused on two dimensions of filial piety: reciprocal filial piety (RFP), which reflects affection, gratitude, and mutual respect between parents and children, and authoritarian filial piety (AFP), which stresses obedience, role duties, and parental authority. Using data from 763 Chinese secondary school students, we examined whether these two forms of filial piety were associated with prosocial behaviour and whether self-esteem and life satisfaction helped account for these links. The results showed that both RFP and AFP were positively related to prosocial behaviour. Moreover, self-esteem and life satisfaction partly explained the associations between both forms of filial piety and prosocial behaviour. They operated both as separate intervening variables and as a sequential process. Adolescents who reported stronger filial values also tended to report higher self-esteem and life satisfaction, which were further associated with more prosocial behaviour. This suggests that the link between filial piety and prosocial behaviour may operate partly through adolescents' psychological well-being. More broadly, the findings extend work on filial piety by showing its relevance to prosocial development in adolescence.
He et al. (Fri,) studied this question.