This study examines the complex effects of empathic concern on mental health and behavioral manifestations and the potential indirect paths through excessive adaptation. A cross-sectional design with 1355 participants was employed. Empathic concern, excessive adaptation, prosocial behaviors, reactive aggression, depression, and positive mental health were assessed using established scales. Structural equation modeling and Bayesian linear regression were applied to analyze the paths. For direct paths, empathic concern positively predicted prosocial behaviors and positive mental health, whereas it was negatively related to depression and reactive aggression. For indirect paths, excessive adaptation was found to mediate the relationship between empathic concern and the outcome variables with the exception of positive mental health. By elucidating the mediating role of excessive adaptation, the results herein not only deepen our understanding of the dual effect of empathic concern on mental health and behavioral manifestations but also offer important insights for the medical and educational fields.

Depression is prevalent and may be transmitted within the family. However, whether and how gender influences the interaction of depressive symptoms between parents and adolescents remains largely unclear. The current study used a cross-lagged panel network (CLPN) analysis to examine the gender-specific transmission of depressive symptoms in representative Chinese families from the China Family Panel Studies. The participants included 1469 adolescents (48.3% girls) and their parents, with depressive symptoms assessed by the epidemiological studies depression scale in 2020 (T1; M_age = 13.80) and 2022 (T2; M_age = 15.62), respectively. The gender-specific CLPNs (i.e., boy–father, boy–mother, girl–father, and girl–mother CLPNs) showed that the “loneliness” at T1 repeatedly exhibited higher impacts on the other symptoms at T2 across networks. Furthermore, the symptoms of girls at T1 were more likely to influence their parents at T2, while the symptoms of boys at T2, especially the “sleep restlessness”, were susceptible to parental influence at T1. These findings provide deeper insights into the development of mental health policies, and future studies are needed to explore the mediating mechanisms of such transmission.