Values, Empathy and Friendship Quality in adolescence.

RODRIGUEZ LUCAS MARCELO; MESURADO BELÉN; JOSÉ EDUARDO MORENO; HESS CARINA; GHIGLIONE MARÍA EVA

Baltimore

Encuentro; 2019 SRCD Biennial Meeting Society for Research in Child Development; 2019

Society for Research in Child Development

Values are an important theme in the positive development of children and adolescents (Leman, Smith & Petersen, 2017). They have been considered as an important aspect in psychosocial and moral development. They can be defined as non-negotiable ideas, which constitute the basis by which the person acts autonomously, in any situation, in a positive, adequate and valid way (Quintana Cabanas, 1993). Antolín Suárez and others (2011) in their literature review have identified values for positive development in adolescents, such as: social values (prosociality, social commitment and justice and social equality), personal values (wholeness, responsibility and honesty) and individualistic values (hedonism and social recognition). Empathy is the capacity to understand the perspective of the other or the feelings and affections of the other, to put oneself in the place of the other (Sánchez-Queija, Oliva & Parra, 2006; Martí Vilar & Lousado Marques, 2010). Eisenberg and Strayer (1992) affirm that empathy implies sharing the emotion that is perceived in the other, feeling with the other. For Davis (1980, 1983), empathy implies cognitive processes of understanding and adopting perspectives, as well as affective processes of sympathy and experiences of feelings coherent with the experiences of the other. Empathy and values are important variables in peer relationships, particularly in friendship. Bukowski, Hoza and Boivin (1994) have studied the dimensions of friendship quality: companionship, conflict, balance, help, security and closeness. The study aims to analyze the phenomena to find out if personal, social and individualistic values and empathy may foster or thwart different dimensions of friendship quality. The scale to assess positive youth development values (Antolín Suárez et al., 2011), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (Davis, 1983) and Friendship Quality Scale (Bukowski et al., 1994) were used to measure the variables. The sample was conformed of 411 adolescent, male and female: 47% boys and 53% girls, with an age range fluctuating between 12 and 17 years old (M=14.41 DS=1.21). Hierarchical multiple regression were used to analyze data. The results have shown that personal values are important predictor for balance, help, security and closeness. Perspective Taking (Empathy) is an important predictor for help and security. Empathic Concern (Empathy) is an important predictor for balance, help, security and closeness. In turn individualistic values negatively predict balance and help. This values positively predicts conflict (see Table 1). The results have shown that personal values, perspective taking and empathic concern are important for friendship quality.