Family support, respect, and empathy as correlates of U.S. Latino/Latina college students’ prosocial behaviors toward different recipients

Abstract

Cultural developmental and relational theories suggest that multiple social agents influence young adults’ prosocial behavior (i.e., actions intended to benefit others; e.g., helping or comforting others in need). Despite these theoretical foundations, research that examines cultural and multiple relational correlates of prosocial behaviors in U.S. Latino/Latina college students is scarce. Moreover, young adults are socialized to express prosocial behaviors to recipients that have distinct interpersonal relationships. The present study investigated the relations between mothers’, fathers’, and siblings’ support and U.S. Latino/Latina young adults’ prosocial behaviors toward different recipients (family, friends, and strangers) and considered the mediating roles of family respect values, perspective taking, and empathic concern. The sample was 253 U.S. Latino/Latina college students (58.2% female; M age = 21.07, SD =1.98) with at least one sibling. Structural equation modeling showed evidence for cultural values and moral traits as intervening mechanisms in the relations between family support and prosocial behaviors. All forms of family support predicted family respect values, which were associated with prosocial behaviors toward family and friends more so than toward strangers. Family respect values also predicted perspective taking and empathic concern and there was evidence for the mediating role of empathic concern in the relations between perspective taking and prosocial behaviors (across recipient). The current study demonstrates the interplay of multiple family socialization agents in predicting U.S. Latino/Latina college students’ prosocial behaviors toward different recipients, which has implications for theories of prosocial development.