[Associations between parental control and prosocial behavior among middle school students in Xuancheng and Suzhou in 2022: Mediating role of peer relationships].

Objective: To explore the relationship between the level of parental control and peer relationships and prosocial behavior of junior high school students.

Methods: In June-July 2022, a total of 2564 junior high school students were selected from one junior high school in each of the urban, rural and combined urban and rural areas of Xuancheng City and Suzhou City, Anhui Province, using random whole cluster sampling to collect data using the Level of Parental Control Scale, the Tendency to Prosocial Behavior Scale for Junior High School Students, and the Children's Junior High School Student Peer Relationships Scale, and the SPSS 25.0 software was used to data were analyzed, descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA and correlation analysis were performed on the data, and the mediating effects of parental control and prosocial behavior were verified using the bias-corrected nonparametric percentile Bootstrap method.

Results: The study population consisted of 1281 boys and 1283 girls, aged between 11 and 17 years with a mean age of(13.39±0.80) years. Male students had higher parental control score than female students(185.31±27.49 vs 178.21±25.13, P<0.01) and male students had lower peer relationship score than female students(47.13±10.84 vs 48.41±11.26, P<0.01). Rural students had lower parental control scores than urban and urban-rural students(172.47±25.40 vs 183.03±24.63 vs 190.37±26.61, P<0.01). Rural students had higher peer relationship scores than urban and urban-rural students(49.57±10.57 vs 48.33±10.84 vs 45.25±11.39, P<0.01). Rural students had lower pro-social behavior scores than urban and combined urban and rural students(86.27±16.98 vs 91.64±17.26 vs 95.14±19.27, P<0.01). The differences in parental control and peer relationship scores among middle school students of different genders were statistically significant(P<0.01). The differences in parental control, pro-social behavior and peer relationship scores among students from different cities, urban-rural areas and rural areas were statistically significant(P<0.01). Parental control was positively correlated with both pro-social behavior scores of junior high school students(r=0.315). Peer relationship played a masking effect between parental control and junior high school students' pro-social behavior(a×b and c' heteroscedastic, |a×b|/c'=8.50%). Among students in rural and urban-rural combined areas, peer relationship played a masking effect between parental control and junior high school students' prosocial behavior(a×b and c' heteroscedastic, |a×b|/c'=17.81%), and the mediating effect of peer relationships was not statistically significant among students in urban areas(Bootstrap 95% CI-0.0157-0.004).

Conclusion: Parental control positively affects peer relationships and prosocial behavior among junior high school students, and good peer relationships significantly and positively affect the development of pro-social behavior among junior high school students; the mediating effect of peer relationships between parental control and prosocial behavior varies with urban and rural areas.