(1) Background: Empathy affects an individual’s decision to participate in volunteering, and volunteering, in turn, influences mental health. Intriguingly, studies have been limited in exploring underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions for the relationship between empathy and mental health. Furthermore, volunteering studies have overlooked the multi-dimensionality of empathy. Therefore, this study seeks to contribute to extant literature by investigating the mediating effect of volunteering for the relationships between cognitive and affective empathy and mental health and the moderating effect of gender for the relationship between empathy and volunteering. (2) Methods; Data were collected using a survey in South Korea and consisted of 301 full-time employees who voluntarily engaged in their corporate volunteer programs. Furthermore, they voluntarily participated in the study. The hypotheses were tested with path analysis and a group comparison was also conducted. (3) Results: Volunteering was found to mediate the relationships between cognitive empathy and affective empathy with mental health. In addition, gender moderated the relationship between empathy and volunteering. (4) Conclusions: As the study found empathy to increase individuals’ engaging in volunteering activities which then improved mental health, the study supports extant theoretical frameworks on empathy and volunteering. Moreover, the study found gender differences on empathy and volunteering; thereby supporting and contributing to extant literature.

(1) Background: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between social support in the workplace for childcare teachers, resilience, and self-care. This study explores the inner mechanism that helps to strengthen self-care of childcare teachers, which enables teachers to provide quality care to children and promote their own wellbeing. (2) Methods: The survey was conducted from September to October 2018 for childcare teachers in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province using convenience sampling. Out of 550 questionnaires, 491 were returned, with 466 used for the analysis, excluding those with incomplete responses. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and mediation analysis. (3) Results: There were significant correlations between all variables. The mediation analysis showed a complete mediation of resilience. (4) Conclusion: Childcare teachers first have to take good care of themselves in order to perform well as a childcare professional. Educational materials and counseling programs tailored for childcare teachers need to be developed for better self-care and building greater resilience. Materials for directors of daycare centers, as well as teachers stressing the importance of social support for each other, will help childcare teachers’ effective functioning in their professional and personal life. Prevention and intervention programs for self-care will eventually help lower the costs of healthcare in society.

(1) Background: Studies have been limited in explaining how volunteering acts as underlying mechanisms that associate the antecedents and outcomes of volunteering. This study aims to investigate whether volunteer participation mediates the relationship between motives (self-oriented and other-oriented) and psychological well-being, and further whether person-organizational (PO)-fit moderates the relationship between motives and volunteer participation. (2) Methods: Data were collected from full-time employees in organizations in South Korea using a self-administered instrument. To test the hypotheses, hierarchical regression analyses and path analyses were conducted. (3) Results: Volunteer participation showed a significant mediating effect only for the relationship between other-oriented motives and psychological well-being. PO fit showed a significant moderating role, and further analysis revealed that the mediated moderation of PO-fit was significant. (4) Conclusions: Results suggest that employees with other-oriented motives and PO fit were more likely to participate in volunteer activities, which then increased one’s psychological well-being. Findings provide insights for HR practitioners regarding employee volunteering programs.

Although loneliness has been researched for several decades, little is known about the proximal and distal outcomes of loneliness at work. Therefore, this study examined the mediating effect of employee cynicism on the relationships of workplace loneliness with in-role behavior, voice behavior, and deviant behavior. We used a three-wave time-lagged method of data collection with a sample of 225 police officers in South Korea. The results showed that cynicism significantly mediated each of the hypothesized relationships. Thus, loneliness enhanced employee cynicism, as lonely police officers were more likely to doubt the significance of their job and to become less involved with their work. Subsequently, cynical police officers were less likely to engage in in-role behavior and voice behavior, and more likely to engage in deviant behavior. Implications of the findings are discussed.

본 연구는 청소년의 친구관계와 비행 간의 관계에서 그릿의 매개효과를 검증하는데 목적이 있다. 이를 위해 한국청소년정책연구원의 한국아동 · 청소년패널조사(KCYPS) 2018｣중학교 1학년 패널의 3차년도(2020) 자료를 활용하여 중학교 3학년(총 2,384명)을 대상으로 하여 분석하였다. 분석은 SPSS 22.0과 PROCESS Macro 3.3 프로그램을 통해 이루어졌다. 분석 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 긍정적 친구관계, 부정적 친구관계, 비행, 그릿 간에는 유의한 상관이 나타났다. 둘째, 매개분석 결과 부정적 친구관계는 비행에 정적이고 유의한 영향을 주는 것으로 확인되었고, 그릿은 부정적 친구관계와 비행 간의 관계를 부분매개하는 것으로 나타났다. 긍정적 친구관계는 비행에 유의한 직접 효과를 보이지 않았으며, 그릿은 긍정적 친구관계와 비행의 관계를 완전매개하는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 주요 연구결과에 대하여 논의하고 학문적, 실천적 의의를 제시하였다.