Father-Love Absence and Moral Sensitivity: The Mediating Effect of Awe and Perspective-Taking

Paternal love plays a crucial role in a child's moral sensitivity. Previous studies in psychology focused on exploring the relationship between mother figures and their children's moral development, while there needed to be more research on paternal love. Moreover, the potential path by which father-love absence affects an individual's moral sensitivity is still unclear. Thus, based on social learning theory, we explored the mediating roles of awe and perspective-taking in the relationship between the lack of fatherly love and individuals' moral sensitivity. 1,795 adolescents living in mainland China were recruited to participate in the study. They were asked to complete four different assessment scales, including the Father-Love Absence Scale (FLAS), the Interpersonal Reactivity Index-C Scale (IRI-C), the Dispositional Positive Emotion Scale (DPES), and the Moral Sensitivity Questionnaire (MSQ). The results showed that, firstly, father-love absence directly negatively affected children's moral sensitivity. Secondly, awe emotion mediated the effect of father-love absence on children's moral sensitivity. Thirdly, perspective-taking ability mediated the effect of father-love absence on children's moral sensitivity. This study provided theoretical support to explore factors in enhancing individuals' moral sensitivity, such as inhibiting father-love absence by experiencing awe emotion and promoting the ability of perspective-taking.