Abstract
Although adolescents’ prosocial behavior is related to various positive outcomes, longitudinal research on its development and predictors is still sparse. This 6-wave longitudinal study investigated the development of prosocial behavior across adolescence, and examined longitudinal associations with perspective taking and empathic concern. Participants were 497 adolescents (Mage t1 = 13.03 years, 43% girls) who reported on their prosocial behaviors, empathic concern, and perspective taking. The results revealed marked gender differences in the development of prosocial behavior. For boys, levels of prosocial behavior were stable until age 14, followed by an increase until age 17, and a slight decrease thereafter. For girls, prosocial behavior increased until age 16 years and then slightly decreased. Regarding longitudinal associations, empathic concern was consistently related to subsequent prosocial behavior. However, perspective taking was only indirectly related to prosocial behavior, via its effect on empathic concern. Tests of the direction of effects showed support for the notion that earlier prosocial behavior predicts subsequent empathy-related traits, but only for girls. The findings support cognitive-developmental and moral socialization theories of prosocial development and the primary role of moral emotions in predicting prosocial behaviors. Our findings inform strategies to foster prosocial behaviors by emphasizing moral emotions rather than moral cognitions during adolescence.
Highlights
Adolescents’ prosocial behavior, or voluntary behavior intended to benefit others (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Spinrad, 2006), has been linked with several positive outcomes, including high self-esteem, academic success, and high quality relationships (Laible et al 2004; Padilla-Walker and Carlo 2014; Wentzel 1993)
The present findings showed that perspective taking still plays an indirect role, by its longitudinal association with empathic concern, which in turn was related to subsequent prosocial behavior
Our results underscore that the development of prosocial behaviour during adolescence is gender-specific: growth in prosocial behavior starts earlier for girls than for boys, and, in accordance with gender role intensification theory, gender differences increase between early and mid-adolescence (Hill and Lynch 1983)
Summary
Adolescents’ prosocial behavior, or voluntary behavior intended to benefit others (Eisenberg, Fabes, & Spinrad, 2006), has been linked with several positive outcomes, including high self-esteem, academic success, and high quality relationships (Laible et al 2004; Padilla-Walker and Carlo 2014; Wentzel 1993). The possible reciprocal relations between prosocial behavior, emotions, and cognitions likely result in a more integrated sense of moral self, which may account for strong moral identity (Carlo et al 2015; Hardy and Carlo 2005) Despite these conceptual foundations, the few previous studies that examine reciprocal effects of prosocial behavior on empathy have not included perspective taking, though they do provide initial support for reciprocal relations between prosocial behavior and empathic concern (Carlo et al 2015; Eisenberg et al 1999). Previous studies provide some support for gender differences in the associations between perspective taking, empathic concern and prosocial behavior (Caravita et al 2009; Eisenberg et al 2001), this issue has not yet been studied thoroughly across adolescence. In the current study, we addressed this aspect, examining whether the pattern of longitudinal associations between prosocial behavior and the dimensions of empathy differed for adolescent boys and girls
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