The influence of social support on low-income adolescents’ prosocial behavior: The mediating role of social goals

Abstract

The current research aimed at deepening our understanding of how multiple sources of perceived social support (i.e., parent, teacher, friend, peer) predicted low-income adolescents’ multiple types of prosocial behavior (i.e., emotional, dire, compliant, anonymous, public, and altruistic) and if these relations were mediated by agentic and communal social goals across a 1-semester time span. Participants of the current research were adolescents in middle schools whose annul family income is less than 10,000 RMB (1,567.40 dollars) with ages ranging from 12 to 15 years old (Mean = 14.07, SD = 1.24, N = 689). The results showed that perceived social support from teachers, friends, and classmates positively predicted later prosocial behavior, and this relation was mediated by communal but not agentic social goal. Agentic social goal negatively predicted compliant prosocial behavior, anonymous prosocial behavior, and altruistic prosocial behavior. Perceived social support from parents, teachers, classmates, and friends did not significantly predict later agency. The present findings extended our understanding of the processes underlying the influence of social support on low-income adolescents’ prosocial development. Implications for practices to promote low-income adolescents’ prosocial development were discussed.