Moderation effect of justice sensitivity on empathy and depression among volunteers

Objective To examine the relationship between empathy and depression and to explore moderation effect of justice sensitivity on the relationship among volunteers.Methods Totally 509 volunteers were recruited with random sampling from 23 provinces,municipalities and autonomous regions across China and surveyed with Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI),Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D),and Justice Sensitivity Inventory(JSI)between October 2015 and January 2016.Results For all the volunteers,the average scores were 11.52±7.73 for depression,11.56±5.10 for fantasy,14.45±4.23 for empathy concern,14.71±4.44 for perspective taking,10.71±4.68 for personal distress,and 26.85±10.55 for observer justice sensitivity,respectively.Empathy concern and perspective taking had a negative predictability to depression (β=-0.25 and-0.23,both P<0.01);personal distress had a positive predictability to depression (β=0.23,P<0.01);observer justice sensitivity also had a positive predictability to depression (β=0.16,P<0.01).Observer justice sensitivity could alleviate the negative impact of low fantasy on depression (β=-0.11,P<0.05).Conclusion Observer justice sensitivity plays a regulative role on the relationship between empathy and depression among volunteers in China.