title: Empathy and nonattachment independently predict peer nominations of prosocial behavior of adolescents.
abstract: There is a plethora of research showing that empathy promotes prosocial behavior among young people. We examined a relatively new construct in the mindfulness literature, nonattachment, defined as a flexible way of relating to one's experiences without clinging to or suppressing them. We tested whether nonattachment could predict prosociality above and beyond empathy. Nonattachment implies high cognitive flexibility and sufficient mental resources to step out of excessive self-cherishing to be there for others in need. Multilevel Poisson models using a sample of 15-year olds (N = 1831) showed that empathy and nonattachment independently predicted prosocial behaviors of helpfulness and kindness, as judged by same-sex and opposite-sex peers, except for when boys nominated girls. The effects of nonattachment remained substantial in more conservative models including self-esteem and peer nominations of liking.
authors: Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University Strathfield, NSW, Australia.
authors: Baljinder K
authors: BK
authors: Sahdra
authors: Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University Strathfield, NSW, Australia.
authors: Joseph
authors: J
authors: Ciarrochi
authors: Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University Strathfield, NSW, Australia.
authors: Philip D
authors: PD
authors: Parker
authors: Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University Strathfield, NSW, Australia.
authors: Sarah
authors: S
authors: Marshall
authors: Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University Strathfield, NSW, Australia.
authors: Patrick
authors: P
authors: Heaven
keywords: empathy; multilevel poisson modeling; nonattachment; peer nominations; prosocial behavior