The Mediating Role of the Empathy in the Relationship Between Effortful Control and Antisocial Behavior in Adolescents

Antisocial behaviors include actions that violate social norms and harm others. These behaviors can stem from individual, environmental, and social factors, such as ineffective upbringing, stress, or social pressures. Managing and reducing such behaviors requires effective educational and social interventions. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the mediating role of empathy in the relationship between effortful control and antisocial behaviors in adolescents. The population consisted of all high school students in the academic year 2022-2023 in Shiraz city, from whom a sample of 567 students was selected using a multistage cluster random sampling. The questionnaires of effortful control, empathy, and antisocial behaviors were distributed among them. The proposed model was evaluated using path analysis with the help of SPSS-24 and AMOS-24 software. The findings indicated that the proposed model had a good fit with the data. Additionally, the results showed that effortful control was significantly related to empathy, and empathy was significantly related to antisocial behaviors. However, no significant relationship was found between effortful control and antisocial behaviors. Further, the results revealed that empathy has a mediating role in the relationship between effortful control and antisocial behaviors. Therefore, empathy plays a crucial role in the influence of effortful control on antisocial behaviors and acts as a mediator. Strengthening empathy can thus be an effective approach to reducing antisocial behaviors, even in cases where effortful control does not have a direct impact.