Parenting and Children’s Prosocial Development

Abstract

This chapter describes the relation of parental characteristics and behaviors to children’s prosocial development and empathy-related responding. It explores the theories related to the socialization of prosocial tendencies and moral reasoning are briefly presented. The chapter discusses the empirical findings regarding relations of parental practices and characteristics to pro-social tendencies and moral reasoning are reviewed. It focuses on the pattern of findings rather than the specifics of the many studies. The chapter summarizes empirical findings on parental variables associated with prosocial behavior and thinking. There are several major ways that developmental researchers have approached the study of prosocial behavior. Although the majority of studies have focused on maternal socialization of prosocial behavior, research on the influence of fathers’ parenting practices on prosocial behavior is beginning to flourish. Most parents who desire to foster prosocial behaviors really want to enhance one type of prosocial responding—altruistic behavior.