Associations among adolescents’ mindfulness, sympathy, cognitive empathy, and sibling relationships

Abstract

In the current study, we examined the direct and indirect paths from mindfulness to adolescents’ sibling relationships through their cognitive empathy and sympathy. The sample consisted of 220 adolescents (50.9 % female) between age of 13 and 17 years (M = 15.86, SD = 0.91). Participants reported their mindfulness (acceptance and awareness), cognitive empathy and sympathy, and sibling relationships. The parallel mediation model revealed that mindful awareness and acceptance predicted kindness, involvement, and empathy within sibling relationships through sympathy. In addition, there was a significant indirect effect of mindful awareness to empathy in sibling relationships through cognitive empathy. Findings provided information regarding the importance of indirect contributions of mindfulness to sibling relationships through cognitive empathy and sympathy.