Abstract: Moral sensitivity refers to the ability to interpret moral situations, which in turn helps to discover the moral content and improve the responding speed to moral issues. Numerous studies have showed that this ability plays an important role in moral development and social life. However, few studies have explored the influence factors of moral sensitivity. Thus, a further discussion about the antecedent variables of moral sensitivity is extremely necessary. Based on social information process theory, the present study examined the impact of perceived social support on moral sensitivity and explored the mediating effect of moral identity internalization and moral identity symbolization from a cognitive perspective. We proposed the following 3 hypotheses: (1) perceived social support positively affects moral sensitivity; (2) moral identity internalization plays a mediating role between perceived social support and moral sensitivity; (3) moral identity symbolization also mediates the relationship between perceived social support and moral sensitivity. In present study, by cluster sampling, 400 Chinese college students were recruited for questionnaire survey. Since 13 of them did not complete the questionnaires, we only got 378 valid samples (M= 18.30, SD= .82). The measurement procedure was divided into two parts. First, each participant completed a series of questionnaires, including Perceived Social Support Scale and Moral Identity Scale. Then, participants were required to rate moral sensitivity materials which were presented by pictures, including a series of pictures of moral behavior scenes and a group of images of faces. After that, SPSS 20.0 and AMOS 22.0 were adopted for data analysis and the structural equation model and the bootstrap estimation procedure were used. We constructed a structural equation model in which perceived social support not only affect moral sensitivity directly, but also indirectly through moral identity internalization and moral identity symbolization. Due to the poor fitting of model 1, model 2 was established, in which e14 and e15 were connected. The model fitted well [χ2 (72, 387) = 243.971, p < .001; RMSEA = .079; SRME = .061; CFI = .914], but the path from moral identity symbolization to moral sensitivity was unavailable (β= -.09, p > .05). Furthermore, the results of bootstrap estimation procedure showed a significant mediating effect of moral identity internalization between perceived social support and moral sensitivity [95% confidence intervals, (.001 to .013)]. Afterwards, we further investigated the cross-gender stability of the structural model. The results of critical ratios of difference (CRD) showed that there were no significant gender di?erences in this model. In conclusion, the current study demonstrated a positive impact of perceived social support on moral sensitivity and confirmed the mediating effect of moral identity internalization between them. This result not only expands our understanding of the influence factors of moral sensitivity, but also provides empirical support for the cognitive development model of moral sensitivity. Additionally, these results also provide a theoretical reference for the measures to enhance moral sensitivity, such as changing the external social environment to provide more social support or paying more attention to moral education so as to enhance the internalization of moral identity.

Key words: social support, moral sensitivity, moral identity, internalization, symbolization

摘要： 本研究依据社会信息加工理论探讨了感知社会支持对道德敏感性的影响，并基于社会认知模型探讨了道德认同内在化和表征化在其中的中介作用。对387名中国大学生进行问卷调查分析，结果表明感知社会支持显著正向影响道德敏感性，仅道德认同内在化在感知社会支持和道德敏感性间起中介作用。这一研究结果拓展了有关道德敏感性影响因素的研究，为增强个体道德敏感性提供了理论依据。

关键词: 社会支持, 道德敏感性, 道德认同, 内在化, 表征化