نویسندگان:
فاطمه فولادی1 ، زهرا هاشمی2 ، پریا سادات معراجی سعید3 .1دانشجوی دکتری روانشناسی تربیتی، گروه روانشناسی تربیتی، دانشکده روانشناسی و علوم تربیتی، دانشگاه الزهرا، تهران، ایران
2استادیار دانشگاه الزهراء(س)،تهران، ایران
3دانشجوی دکتری روانشناسی تربیتی، گروه روانشناسی تربیتی، دانشکده روانشناسی و علوم تربیتی، دانشگاه الزهرا، تهران، ایران
چکیده فارسی: هدف پژوهش حاضر بررسی رابطۀ سبکهای فرزندپروری با رشد اخلاقی و همدلی با تأکید بر نقش میانجی کارکردهای اجرایی بود. روش پژوهش حاضر همبستگی از نوع معادلات ساختاری بود. جامعه این پژوهش را تمامی نوجوانان دختر 15-18 سال شهر کرمان در سال 1402 تشکیل دادند. با استفاده از روش نمونهگیری گلولۀ برفی تعداد 250 نفر به عنوان نمونه پژوهش انتخاب شدند و شرکتکنندگان به پرسشنامههای سبکهای فرزندپروری (بامریند، 1971)، همدلی (طاهری و همکاران، 2023)، رشد اخلاقی (معنویپور، 2012) و مهارتهای اجرایی (عبدالمحمدی و همکاران، 2025) پاسخ دادند. دادههای گردآوری شده از طریق نرم فزار spss25 و Amos تحلیل شدند. یافتههای پژوهش نشان داد که رابطۀ بین سبکهای فرزندپروری با رشد اخلاقی و همدلی معنادار بود. با توجه به شاخصهای برازش مدل، نقش میانجی کارکردهای اجرایی در رابطۀ بین سبکهای فرزندپروری با رشد اخلاقی و همدلی از برازش مطلوبی برخوردار بود. همچنین نتایج آزمون سوبل حاکی از آن بود که نقش میانجی کارکردهای اجرایی در رابطۀ سبکهای فرزندپروری با رشد اخلاقی معنادار بود، اما با همدلی رابطۀ معناداری وجود نداشت. به طور کلی میتوان گفت سبکهای فرزندپروری میتواند به طور مستقیم بر همدلی و به طور غیرمستقیم از طریق تأثیر بر کارکردهای اجرایی بر رشد اخلاقی اثر گذار باشد. بنابراین با توجه به نتایج حاصل از پژوهش حاضر میتوان گفت والدین از طریق تقویت کارکردهای اجرایی میتوانند بر رشد اخلاقی تأثیر بگذارند. همچنین اتخاذ سبک فرزندپروری مقتدرانه، همدلی بیشتری را در فرزندان پرورش میدهد.
Structural Models of Executive Functions, Parenting Styles, Moral Development and Empathy
English Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between parenting styles and moral development and empathy, emphasizing the mediating role of executive functions. The method was structural equation correlation. The population consisted of female adolescents aged 15-18 in Kerman city. Using snowball sampling, 250 people were selected, and the participants answered questionnaires of parenting styles (Baumrind, 1971), empathy (Taheri et al., 2023), moral development (Manavi Pour, 2013), and executive skills (Dawson and Gora, 2012). The findings showed a significant relationship between parenting styles with moral development and empathy. According to the model fit indices, the mediating role of executive functions in the relationship between parenting styles and moral development and empathy had a favorable fit. The Sobel test indicated the mediating role of executive functions in the relationship between parenting styles and moral development was significant, but not with empathy. Introduction It is important to raise a generation committed to moral and social norms who can live empathetically and compatibly with others (Bosliki, 2019, p. 113). Moral development is a process where children's moral arguments and attitudes towards law violations are formed and changed. to these ethics, there are guiding principles that teach people to observe justice, help each other, and behave decently (Shu'a Kazemi et al., 2014, p. 109). A main component of moral development is empathy (Abdullah and Salim, 2020, p. 35). Empathy is an umbrella term. Considering the role of cognition in moral evolution and empathy, the role of executive functions should be considered (Yan et al., 2020, p. 37). Executive functions are a neuropsychological term that includes high-level psychological processes. Several studies have investigated the relationship between parenting styles and moral development. Esmaili et al. (2021) found a significant positive relationship between moral development and permissive, authoritarian, and logical authority parenting. Di Pentima et al. (2024) reported a relationship between parenting styles and meaningful moral development. Recent studies by Wang et al. (2021); Abdullah and Salim (2020); Yusuf and Adiputra (2020); Solfama (2013) showed parenting styles significantly influence children’s empathy development, as empathetic parents foster empathy in their children. However, the mediating role of executive functions in the relationship between parenting styles and moral development and empathy is unclear. Considering the importance of adolescence for emotional, social, and moral growth and the increase in parent-child conflicts due to adolescent excitability and lack of research, this research aims to investigate the mediating role of executive functions in the relationship between parenting styles and empathy and moral development. The research model and assumptions are tested: The relationship between parenting styles and moral development and empathy is significant. Executive functions significantly mediate the relationship between parenting styles, moral development, and empathy. Methodology The present research used correlation of structural equation modeling and the statistical population of female teenagers aged 15 to 18 in Kerman city in 2023. The sample consists of 250 people selected based on the proposed logic (Klein, 2010) and virtual snowball sampling. The research tools are: Parenting Styles Questionnaire: Diana Baumrind developed a 30-item questionnaire on parenting styles in 1973. Hosseinpour translated it into Persian in 2000. The questionnaire measures parents’ styles in three subscales: permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative. Herbaria (1991) used the differential method to check the reliability and validity of this questionnaire. He found that the authoritarian style has a negative relationship with the permissive style r=0.38 and authoritative style r=0.48. The permissive style has a significant relationship with the authoritative style (Mehrafrouz, 2018). Moral Development Questionnaire: Manavipour designed it in 2013. It has 13 items and 4 factors (social ethics, customary ethics, pre-customary ethics, post-customary ethics). In Manavipour's (2011) research, experts checked the content validity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis verified construct validity, and the internal consistency was obtained through a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.93. Revised Em-Question of Empathy for Children and Adolescents (EmQue-CA-R): Reif et al. (2010) originally designed this questionnaire and Orgavo et al. (2017) revised it. This revised scale has 14 questions with three subscales: emotional empathy, cognitive empathy, and peacekeeping. The convergent validity of the revised empathy scale is established. The internal consistency coefficients for the subscales were 0.79, 0.76, and 0.82. The overall scale reliability using Cronbach's alpha was 0.84. Executive Skills Questionnaire (ESQ-R): The first version of the Executive Skills Questionnaire by Dawson and Gora (2012) is a paper-and-pencil self-report instrument with 33 questions for adolescents and 36 for adults (Dawson and Gora, 2018). After psychometric studies by Street et al. (2019), this questionnaire was reduced to 25 items by removing questions evaluating planning skills, time management, emotion regulation, organization, and behavior. This questionnaire has been standardized for Iranian society, and its validity and reliability checked. However, the researchers are excused from reporting the results because the article is ready for publication (Abdolmohammadi and Ghadiri Sormanabadi, 2023). Results The description and examination of demographic variables among 250 female adolescents show that the majority of adolescents were studying in the field of humanities at 64.8%, followed by 18.4% in the field of science, 12.4% in experimental sciences, and 4.4% in arts. The scores for parenting styles are: negligent 29.19, authoritarian 29.03, and logical 40.47. The teenage empathy score is 37.81 (SD 4.81), moral development score is 49.36 with a standard deviation of 6.93, and executive function score is 27.86 (SD 10.92). Table 2 shows the fit indexes of structural equation model 1. The chi square to degree of freedom ratio is 3.830, less than 5, indicating a favorable index. The RMSEA index is 0.078, lower than 0.08, so this index is approved, and the remaining indices are higher than 0.9, indicating the study’s fit indices are unacceptable. The results indicate that among the examined variables, only logical parenting styles with an indirect coefficient of 0.163, autocratic style with a coefficient of -0.113, and negligent style with a coefficient of 0.056 have an indirect and significant effect on the endogenous variable. Executive function mediated moral development. With the increase of logical and negligent parenting styles, the number of executive functions increases, and with the increase of executive functions, moral growth increases. Also, with the increase of authoritarian style, the number of executive functions decreases, and with the decrease of executive functions, moral growth decreases. The results also show that parenting styles did not indirectly affect empathy among adolescents through the mediation of executive functions. Discussion and conclusion According to the parental acceptance-rejection theory (Ronner, 2004), parental behaviors have a bipolar dimension where acceptance is at one pole and rejection at the other. Parental factors, such as intimacy and emotional warmth, positively predict children's empathy, while rejection prevents its formation. Therefore, in autocratic and careless styles, where parental responsiveness is insufficient and intimacy is lacking, little empathy forms in children, but in the authoritative style, where there is acceptance, intimacy, and responsiveness, more empathy forms. Proponents of the socio-cognitive domain theory believe that the more parents observe the borders of the three domains—moral, customary, and personal—the more they help their children's moral development. Among the three parenting styles, strict parents consider moral matters too broad and include examples of customary or personal matters, while lax parents consider the scope of personal matters too wide, view some moral and customary matters as personal, and give the child a lot of freedom, but draw a clear line between the three domains. In the autocratic style, children struggle to maintain attention due to parents’ physical punishment and verbal hostility, adopt low self-regulation skills through role modeling, and miss learning behavioral and emotional self-regulation strategies for social conflicts. They lose in constructive ways. In the authoritative style, the favorable and rational behavior of parents allows children to face everyday challenges and strengthen their executive skills, including problem solving and reasoning (Vokevich et al., 2020, p. 327). The current research has limitations. The statistical population is limited to Kerman, restricting the ability to generalize results. Due to changes in adolescent moral values, more research on their moral development and empathy is needed, with increased family and school participation. Parents should prioritize children's moral development in daily activities, as globalization negatively affects it.