Parental Characteristics, Empathy, and Bullying Perpetration in Chinese Adolescents: Insights from Mediation and Network Analyses.

The roles of distinct parental characteristics and empathy components in different forms of bullying perpetration among adolescents remain underexplored. Using data from 1,041 Chinese adolescents (560 boys and 481 girls; Mage = 13.37 years), this cross-sectional study employed structural equation modeling to examine the direct and indirect associations of three parental characteristics (parental sympathy, warmth, and autonomy support) with four forms of bullying perpetration (physical, nonphysical, relational, and cyber) through affective and cognitive empathy. Results indicated that each parental characteristic was negatively associated with one or more forms of bullying perpetration, although the specific patterns varied across bullying forms. Cognitive empathy, rather than affective empathy, showed significant indirect associations linking parental sympathy and warmth with physical and nonphysical bullying perpetration. Complementary network analysis identified parental autonomy support, parental warmth, and nonphysical bullying as central nodes, with cognitive empathy serving as the primary bridge linking parental characteristics with adolescent bullying perpetration. These findings offer preliminary implications for developing and evaluating prevention strategies tailored to specific parental characteristics, empathy components, and forms of bullying.