IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v10y2023i1d10.1057_s41599-023-02468-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The structural relations of self-control, empathy, interpersonal trust, friendship quality, and mental well-being among adolescents: a cross-national comparative study in China and Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Jinpeng Niu

    (Qufu Normal University)

  • Chao Jin

    (Qufu Normal University
    Jining University)

  • Lingqi Meng

    (Qufu Normal University)

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to explore the structural relationships between self-control, empathy, interpersonal trust, friendship quality, and mental well-being among Chinese (N = 3595) and Canadian (N = 2056) adolescents. A structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was adopted by means of a multi-group analysis. Within the aggregate sample, empathy and interpersonal trust were shown to be related to mental well-being both directly and indirectly, with friendship quality as the mediating variable, whereas self-control merely had a direct effect on mental well-being. The multiple-group analysis revealed a series of discrepancies, showing that empathy had a significant impact on the mental well-being of Chinese but not Canadian adolescents. Furthermore, empathy exerted a significantly stronger effect on friendship quality for Chinese than for Canadian adolescents, whereas interpersonal trust had a significantly stronger impact on friendship quality among Canadian than among Chinese adolescents. The differences were discussed from a cross-cultural perspective concerning collectivism versus individualism. The measures employed in the present study are closely related to social and emotional skills; the findings therefore may point to benefits for both Chinese and Canadian adolescents in terms of enhancement of their cultural-specific social and emotional skills as well as their well-being.

Suggested Citation

  • Jinpeng Niu & Chao Jin & Lingqi Meng, 2023. "The structural relations of self-control, empathy, interpersonal trust, friendship quality, and mental well-being among adolescents: a cross-national comparative study in China and Canada," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-11, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02468-2
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-023-02468-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-023-02468-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-023-02468-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Easterlin, Richard A, 2001. "Income and Happiness: Towards an Unified Theory," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(473), pages 465-484, July.
    2. Max Haller & Markus Hadler, 2006. "How Social Relations and Structures can Produce Happiness and Unhappiness: An International Comparative Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 75(2), pages 169-216, January.
    3. Seung-Sup Kim & Yeonseung Chung & Melissa J Perry & Ichiro Kawachi & S V Subramanian, 2012. "Association between Interpersonal Trust, Reciprocity, and Depression in South Korea: A Prospective Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, January.
    4. Ed Diener & Shigehiro Oishi & Louis Tay, 2018. "Advances in subjective well-being research," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 2(4), pages 253-260, April.
    5. Krzysztof Zagórski, 2011. "Income and Happiness in Time of Post-Communist Modernization," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 331-349, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jinmei Tu & Hongyu Fu, 2024. "The path to happiness for music students: music empathy and music engagement as potential sources of subjective well-being," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hock-Eam Lim & Daigee Shaw & Pei-Shan Liao & Hongbo Duan, 2020. "The Effects of Income on Happiness in East and South Asia: Societal Values Matter?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 391-415, February.
    2. Van Landeghem, Bert & Vandeplas, Anneleen, 2018. "The relationship between status and happiness: Evidence from the caste system in rural India," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 62-71.
    3. Xiangdan Piao & Xinxin Ma & Tetsuya Tsurumi & Shunsuke Managi, 2022. "Social Capital, Negative Event, Life Satisfaction and Sustainable Community: Evidence from 37 Countries," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 17(3), pages 1311-1330, June.
    4. Hilke Brockmann, 2009. "Why Are Middle-Aged People so Depressed?: Evidence from West Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 233, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    5. Joanne Haddad & Jad Chaaban & Ali Chalak & Hala Ghattas, 2022. "Does Income Class Affect Life Satisfaction? New Evidence from Cross-Country Microdata," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(6), pages 1-23, June.
    6. Isilda Mara & Michael Landesmann, 2013. "Do I stay because I am happy or am I happy because I stay? Life satisfaction in migration, and the decision to stay permanently, return and out-migrate," Norface Discussion Paper Series 2013008, Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London.
    7. Lasierra, Jose Manuel, 2018. "Work and family as factors determining Individual Subjective Well-Being in Spain," MPRA Paper 89404, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Haining Wang & Zhiming Cheng & Russell Smyth, 2015. "Does Consuming More Make You Happier? Evidence from Chinese Panel Data," Monash Economics Working Papers 29-15, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    9. Stefan Gruber & Gregor Sand, 2022. "Does Migration Pay Off in Later Life? Income and Subjective Well-Being of Older Migrants in Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 969-988, April.
    10. Matías Membiela-Pollán & María Alló-Pazos & Carlos Pateiro-Rodríguez & Félix Blázquez-Lozano, 2019. "The Inefficiency of the Neoclassical Paradigm in the Promotion of Subjective Well-Being and Socioeconomic, and Environmental Sustainability: An Empirical Test for the Spanish Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Powdthavee, Nattavudh & Lekfuangfu, Warn N. & Wooden, Mark, 2015. "What's the good of education on our overall quality of life? A simultaneous equation model of education and life satisfaction for Australia," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 10-21.
    12. Haiyang Lu & Peishan Tong & Rong Zhu, 2020. "Longitudinal Evidence on Social Trust and Happiness in China: Causal Effects and Mechanisms," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(5), pages 1841-1858, June.
    13. Xiangdan Piao & Xinxin Ma & Shunsuke Managi, 2021. "Impact of the Intra-household Education Gap on Wives’ and Husbands’ Well-Being: Evidence from Cross-Country Microdata," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 156(1), pages 111-136, July.
    14. Bettina Isengard & Ronny König, 2021. "Being Poor and Feeling Rich or Vice Versa? The Determinants of Unequal Income Positions in Old Age Across Europe," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 154(3), pages 767-787, April.
    15. Hilke Brockmann & Anne-Maren Koch & Adele Diederich & Christofer Edling, 2018. "Why Managerial Women are Less Happy Than Managerial Men," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 755-779, March.
    16. Andrés Rodríguez-Pose & Viola Berlepsch, 2014. "Social Capital and Individual Happiness in Europe," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 357-386, April.
    17. Jesper Rözer & Gerbert Kraaykamp, 2013. "Income Inequality and Subjective Well-being: A Cross-National Study on the Conditional Effects of Individual and National Characteristics," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 1009-1023, September.
    18. Bert Van Landeghem & Anneleen Vandeplas, 2016. "Lower in rank, but happier: the complex relationship between status and happiness," Working Papers of LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance 556194, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), LICOS - Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance.
    19. Emanuele Blasi & Maria Nucera & Clara Cicatiello & Silvio Franco, 2013. "Socio-demographic Components of Eudaimonic Well-Being: A Survey in an Italian Province," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 451-470, August.
    20. Dana Hamplová, 2019. "Does Work Make Mothers Happy?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 471-497, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:10:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-023-02468-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.