Research on young offenders has primarily focused on identifying predictors of the maladaptive, aggressive behavior; there is a scarcity of evidence on factors that relate to prosocial behavior in these adolescents. The current study examined the link from parenting, emotional instability, and prosocial reasoning to prosocial behavior, while also examining the mediating roles of empathic concern (EC) and perspective taking (PT) in a sample of Spanish adolescent offenders compared to a sample of nonoffenders. Participants were 440 adolescents: 220 young offenders residing in four Youth Detention Centres of Valencia (67.3% men) and 220 enrolled in public and private schools within the metropolitan area of Valencia (65.9% men). The two subsamples were similar in age (15−18 years), gender, and social class. Analyses show differences in mother’s permissiveness with empathy (PT and EC), in emotional instability and internalized reasoning with PT in predicting prosocial behavior in offenders and nonoffenders adolescents. EC and PT are significative and positively related to prosocial behavior in both groups. These findings have implications for prevention and reeducation interventions oriented to social reinsertion of adolescent offenders and the development of family and social counseling programs that favor adaptive behavior.

对未成年罪犯的研究主要集中在确定不良适应性，攻击性行为的预测因素。在这些青少年中，与亲社会行为有关的因素缺乏证据。当前的研究检查了从养育子女，情绪不稳定和亲社会推理到亲社会行为的联系，同时还研究了西班牙青少年犯罪者样本与非犯罪者样本中的移情关注（EC）和观点采择（PT）的中介作用。 。参加者为440名青少年：居住在瓦伦西亚四个青年拘留中心的220名年轻罪犯（占67.3％的男性），有220名在瓦伦西亚大都市地区的公立和私立学校就读（占65.9％的男性）。这两个子样本在年龄（15-18岁），性别和社会阶层方面相似。分析表明，母亲对同情心的宽容度（PT和EC），情绪不稳定和PT的内在推理在预测犯罪者和非犯罪者青少年亲社会行为方面存在差异。EC和PT在两组中都与亲社会行为具有显着的正相关。这些发现对于针对青少年罪犯重新融入社会的预防和再教育干预措施以及有利于适应性行为的家庭和社会咨询计划的发展具有重要意义。