A causal explanation of adolescents’ prosocial behavior based on mother’s meta-emotion philosophy and moral emotions

This research was conducted with the aim of causal explanation of the prosocial behavior based on mother’s meta-emotion philosophy and the emotions of shame and guilt. The research method is a descriptive-correlational study. The statistical society included all students of the secondary high school in Shiraz city in the academic year of 2016-2017, together with their mothers. Participants were 508 students (257 girls and 251 boys) and their mothers were selected by cluster sampling method. Measurement tools included Meta-Emotion Philosophy Questionnaire (Evelyne, 2006) that have been completed by mothers, Guilt and Shame Proneness Scale (Cohen. etal, 2011) and Prosocial Tendencies Measures (Carlo & Randall, 2002) that have been completed by students. The data was analyezed by structural equation modeling applying AMOS software. The result showed that final model has a good fitness. Also, findings of research hypothesis analysis showed that mother’s emotional coaching has a direct and positive effect on the prosocial behavior and emotions of guilt and shame. Also, emotions of guilt and shame showed direct and positive effect on prosocial behaviors. Based on the findings of the research, emotions of guilt and shame had the mediating role in the relationship between mother’s emotional coaching and prosocial behavior. Mother’s acceptance/awareness didnt show any effect on research variables. In general, results of this research indicated the importance of moral emotiones in prosocial behavior.