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The Link and Mechanism of Father-Love Absence and Benign/Malicious Envy in Adolescents: Based on Longitudinal Tracking and Weekly Diary Method
Xiang Yanhui, Liu Shuangqiang, Chen Meng, Dong Xia
Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2026, Vol. 49 ›› Issue (2) : 340-351.
PDF(1052 KB)
PDF(1052 KB)
The Link and Mechanism of Father-Love Absence and Benign/Malicious Envy in Adolescents: Based on Longitudinal Tracking and Weekly Diary Method
Envy is a universally prevalent and deeply ingrained human emotion, often perceived with negative connotations. Interestingly, envy exhibits a dual nature, encompassing both benign envy and malicious envy. Benign envy serves as a constructive impetus, motivating individuals to strive harder towards attaining greater accomplishments. Conversely, malicious envy obstructs collaboration, fosters animosity, and undermines the social standing of others. Previous research has indicated that the origins of envy, whether it manifests as benign or malicious, can be traced back to early adverse environments, such as instances of child maltreatment. However, the academic community has long overlooked a prevalent and significant early adverse environmental factor: the impact of the absence of early fatherly love on the development of envy. Hence, what is the association between father-love absence and envy, specifically benign/malicious envy? The exploration of this issue holds both theoretical and practical significance, warranting further investigation. Based on this, the present study aims to investigate the association between father-love absence, a unique form of educational absence, and benign/malicious envy, as well as its underlying mechanism from the perspective of ambiguous loss theory. Furthermore, both benign and malicious envy exist at both the trait and state levels. How can we systematically investigate the relationship between father-love absence and adolescents’ traits and the status of benign/malicious envy, as well as the mediating role of cognitive reappraisal in this association?
The present study utilizes longitudinal tracking (Study 1) and weekly diary methods (Study 2) to examine the impact of father-love absence, a unique form of family education absence, on adolescents’ benign/malicious envy at both trait and state levels, as well as its underlying mechanism. In Study 1, a cluster sampling method was adopted to recruit participants from a middle school in Hunan Province. Two waves of data collection were conducted with a six-month interval between them. The initial wave included 1,468 students, while the second wave yielded 1,252 participants after attrition. The results indicate that the father-love absence has both immediate and delayed positive predictive effects on the trait of malicious envy in adolescents, while it exhibits immediate and delayed negative predictive effects on the trait of benign envy. As an adaptive emotion regulation strategy, cognitive reappraisal plays both an immediate and a delayed mediating role between father-love absence and benign/malicious envy. In Study 2, a cluster sampling method was employed to recruit 452 students from a middle school in Hunan Province as research participants. A continuous seven-week diary method was conducted with them every week to investigate their cognitive reappraisal and benign/malicious envy experienced in their daily lives. The results indicate that the father-love absence has a positive predictive effect on adolescents’ weekly levels of malicious envy, and a negative predictive effect on their weekly levels of benign envy. Weekly levels of cognitive reappraisal play a mediating role between the father-love absence and weekly levels of benign or malicious envy.
The current research reveals the intricate correlation between early father-love absence in the family system and adolescents’ traits and status regarding benign or malicious envy, thereby enriching our understanding of factors that influence adolescent envy. It offers comprehensive insights into family function intervention and underscores the pivotal role of fathers in fostering their children’s socio-emotional development. The present study also uncovered the dynamic mediating mechanism of cognitive reappraisal, a crucial strategy for regulating emotions, in the relationship between father-love absence and both benign envy and malicious envy. This finding further provides valuable insights into mitigating adolescent envy through emotional regulation strategies. In essence, these findings contribute to our understanding of how the absence of early fatherly love in adverse environments impacts feelings of envy. Therefore, this study provides a theoretical framework for the cultivation and development of children’s social emotions from the perspective of paternal affection.
father-love absence / benign/malicious envy / cognitive reappraisal / adolescent / longitudinal tracking / weekly diary method
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追求幸福是人类永恒的主题。尽管影响幸福的因素很多, 但社会比较是影响个体幸福感最普遍的因素。基于社会比较理论视角, 分别采用纵向追踪研究和日记法研究探讨了向上社会比较中典型情绪——嫉妒与幸福感的因果关系机制, 并首次尝试建立了嫉妒与一般主观幸福感(SWB, Subject Well-being)因子的循环假设理论模型。在研究1中, 对290名参与者进行间隔1年的两次(T1和T2)追踪调查, 探讨特质嫉妒与主观幸福感双因子模型之间的关系。研究结果显示：(1) T1的特质嫉妒可以显著正向预测T2的消极情感(NA, Negative Affect)和SWB因子, 显著负向预测T2的积极情感(PA, Positive Affect)和生活满意度(LS, Life Satisfaction); (2) T1的一般SWB因子负向预测T2的特质嫉妒。在研究2中, 进一步采用日记法对178名参与者进行了持续14天的研究, 结果发现每日嫉妒仅能正向预测主观幸福感双因子中的NA。首次基于社会比较的理论视角, 采用多方法学视角深入揭示了嫉妒与主观幸福感的PA、NA和LS之间的复杂因果关系机制, 弥补了学术界在相关领域的不足。更重要的是, 还首次自主提出了嫉妒与一般SWB因子的循环假设理论模型, 对从社会比较理论视角去拓展、理解、重评SWB的社会基础提供了较新的思路。
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Previous research has conceptualized dispositional envy as a unitary construct. Recently however, episodic envy has been shown to emerge in two qualitatively different forms. Benign envy is related to the motivation to move upward, whereas malicious envy is related to pulling superior others down. In four studies (N = 1,094)--using the newly developed Benign and Malicious Envy Scale (BeMaS)--we show that dispositional envy is also characterized by two independent dimensions related to distinct motivational dynamics and behavioral consequences. Dispositional benign and malicious envy uniquely predict envious responding following upward social comparisons. Furthermore, they are differentially connected to hope for success and fear of failure. Corresponding to these links, dispositional benign envy predicted faster race performance of marathon runners mediated via higher goal setting. In contrast, dispositional malicious envy predicted race goal disengagement. The findings highlight that disentangling the two sides of envy opens up numerous research avenues.© 2014 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
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Caregivers play an integral role in promoting children's emotion regulation, while children's individual physiology affects how they respond to the caregiving environment. Relatively little is known about how fathering influences toddler emotion regulation, particularly within African American and low-income communities, where risk related to the development of emotion regulation is higher. This study investigated relations among fathering, toddler parasympathetic regulation, and toddler emotion regulation in a sample of 92 families. Fathering was assessed during two interactions: engagement following a stressor during a triadic task and a dyadic play task. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (resting and reactivity) was obtained as an index of toddler parasympathetic arousal. Findings demonstrated an association between fathers' engagement poststressor and toddler emotion regulation. Toddler RSA moderated this association: toddlers with elevated levels of resting RSA benefitted from parenting engagement following a stressor. Fathering during play did not relate to toddler emotion regulation. The importance of fathering and physiologic contexts in early regulatory development is discussed.© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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The authors reviewed the psychological research on envy. The authors examined definitional challenges associated with studying envy, such as the important distinction between envy proper (which contains hostile feelings) and benign envy (which is free of hostile feelings). The authors concluded that envy is reasonably defined as an unpleasant, often painful emotion characterized by feelings of inferiority, hostility, and resentment caused by an awareness of a desired attribute enjoyed by another person or group of persons. The authors examined questions such as why people envy, why envy contains hostile feelings, and why it has a tendency to transmute itself. Finally, the authors considered the role of envy in helping understand other research domains and discussed ways in which people cope with the emotion.(c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved.
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We often evaluate the self and others from social comparisons. We feel envy when the target person has superior and self-relevant characteristics. Schadenfreude occurs when envied persons fall from grace. To elucidate the neurocognitive mechanisms of envy and schadenfreude, we conducted two functional magnetic resonance imaging studies. In study one, the participants read information concerning target persons characterized by levels of possession and self-relevance of comparison domains. When the target person's possession was superior and self-relevant, stronger envy and stronger anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) activation were induced. In study two, stronger schadenfreude and stronger striatum activation were induced when misfortunes happened to envied persons. ACC activation in study one predicted ventral striatum activation in study two. Our findings document mechanisms of painful emotion, envy, and a rewarding reaction, schadenfreude.
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Envy is the painful emotion caused by the good fortune of others. This research empirically supports the distinction between two qualitatively different types of envy, namely benign and malicious envy. It reveals that the experience of benign envy leads to a moving-up motivation aimed at improving one's own position, whereas the experience of malicious envy leads to a pulling-down motivation aimed at damaging the position of the superior other. Study 1 used guided recall of the two envy types in a culture (the Netherlands) that has separate words for benign and malicious envy. Analyses of the experiential content of these emotions found the predicted differences. Study 2 and 3 used one sample from the United States and one from Spain, respectively, where a single word exists for both envy types. A latent class analysis based on the experiential content of envy confirmed the existence of separate experiences of benign and malicious envy in both these cultures as well. The authors discuss the implications of distinguishing the two envy types for theories of cooperation, group performance, and Schadenfreude.
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Envy is a frustrating emotion that arises from upward social comparison. Two studies investigated the appraisals that distinguish benign envy (aimed at improving one's own situation) from malicious envy (aimed at pulling down the superior other). Study 1 found that appraisals of deservingness and control potential differentiated both types of envy. We manipulated these appraisals in Study 2 and found that while both did not influence the intensity of envy, they did determine the type of envy that resulted. The more a situation was appraised as undeserved, the more participants experienced malicious envy. Benign envy was experienced more when the situation was not undeserved, and the most when the situation was appraised as both deserved and controllable. The current research also clarifies how the types of envy differ from the related emotions admiration and resentment.
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Envy is a mixed negative emotion that is characterized by feelings of hostility, inferiority, resentment, and depression. It has been found that mindfulness is negatively associated with envy. This paper aimed to explore the interaction between mindfulness and envy by referring to the mindful emotion regulation model, and it also examines the mediation of emotional intelligence. Six hundred and seventy-six participants (182 men and 494 women) completed the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, the Dispositional Envy Scale, and the Wong Law Emotional Intelligence Scale. Results suggest that mindfulness is significantly and negatively correlated with envy. Meanwhile, a multiple mediation analysis indicated that regulation of emotion and use of emotion partially mediate the impact of mindfulness on envy. The current study not only provides a theoretical basis for possible mechanisms underlying the inhibition of envy, but also provides valuable guidance for developing mindfulness-based intervention programs aiming at reducing the negative effects of envy.© 2021 Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
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Envy differs from common negative emotions across cultures. Although previous studies have explored the neural basis of episodic envy via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), little is known about the neural processes associated with dispositional envy. In the present study, we used regional homogeneity (ReHo) as an index in resting-state fMRI (rs-fMRI) to identify brain regions involved in individual differences in dispositional envy, as measured by the Dispositional Envy Scale (DES). Results showed that ReHo in the inferior/middle frontal gyrus (IFG/MFG) and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) positively predicted dispositional envy. Moreover, of all the personality traits measured by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R), only neuroticism was significantly associated with dispositional envy. Furthermore, neuroticism mediated the underlying association between the ReHo of the IFG/MFG and dispositional envy. Hence, to the best of our knowledge, this study provides the first evidence that spontaneous brain activity in multiple regions related to self-evaluation, social perception, and social emotion contributes to dispositional envy. In addition, our findings reveal that neuroticism may play an important role in the cognitive processing of dispositional envy.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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