Prosocial Behavior In Young Children Research Articles

The Role of Parental Involvement in the Development of Prosocial Behavior in Young Children: An Evolutionary Model Among Colombian Families

AbstractProsocial behavior is a relevant indicator of children’s socio-emotional development linked to decreased conduct and emotional problems. The present study aimed to identify cross-sectional direct effects of parental involvement on prosocial behavior in three-time assessments at ages 3, 5, and 7 years, to identify carryover effects of the study constructs, and to identify the evolution of these effects over time. A sample of 235 Colombian families participated at t0, 220 at t1, and 145 at t2 by completing self-reported questionnaires for prosocial behavior using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire for parental involvement. Using PLS-SEM path modeling, we found that the contribution of parental involvement to prosocial behavior was significant in the three assessments. Carryover analyses indicated that initial levels of parental involvement and initial levels of prosocial behavior predict later levels. Using multigroup analysis, we tested significant changes in the path coefficients of direct effects, finding nonsignificant results. For carryover effects, we found changes in parental involvement between t0/t1 and t1/t2. Finally, t-test analyses were used to identify changes in the construct’s means over time, finding significant changes between parental involvement at t1 and t2. No mean differences were found for prosocial behavior. Results from this study highlight the relevance of parental involvement during childhood for maintaining children’s levels of prosocial behavior and reducing the risk of socio-emotional problems. Preventive approaches for these problems should include parents’ training on parental involvement from age 3.5 years or earlier.

The Effect of Parental Rearing Styles on the Prosocial Behavior of 3-6 Years Old Children

Ever since Diana Baumrind put forward the concept of parental rearing styles in 1967, it has been a subject of great concern to the psychological and educational circles. People have become more and more aware of the influence of the family on the development of young children in various aspects. In order to further explore the influence of parental rearing styles on young children's prosocial behavior, this study adopts a systematic literature review method and selects 19 high-quality documents from China national knowledge infrastructure, Readshow and ERIC databases, focusing on analyzing the influence of parental rearing styles on 3-6 years old children's cooperative and helping behaviors. This study finds that authoritative parenting styles are conducive to the development of prosocial behaviors in young children, whereas young children growing up in permissive, neglectful and authoritarian parental rearing styles show less cooperative behaviors and helping behaviors, and poorer development of prosociality. Effective family education guidance strategies are ultimately proposed to promote parents to adopt positive parental rearing styles to facilitate the development of prosocial behaviors in young children.

Recipient identifiability increases prosocial behavior in young children

Research in adults has established that identifying an individual (e.g., by name or a photograph) increases adults’ prosocial behavior toward that individual. However, little is known about the developmental emergence of this “identifiable victim effect.” We conducted a preregistered study to assess the effects of identifiability on young children’s prosocial behavior. Children aged 3.5 to 6.5 years were given five stickers that they could distribute between themselves and another child, who was either identified by name or unidentified. Across ages, children were more likely to share—and shared more stickers—with the identified recipient than with the unidentified recipient. These results indicate that recipient identifiability promotes prosocial behavior from remarkably early in development.

Tablet applications as socializing platforms: The effects of prosocial touch screen applications on young children's prosocial behavior

The high prevalence of touch screen devices in the lives of preschool children has prompted increased research on the effects of tablets on children's learning and skills. However, to date, little empirical research has investigated how this technology can influence young children's socio-emotional learning. The present study reports two experiments that examined the effects of playing prosocial touch-screen applications on preschool children's subsequent prosocial behavior. In both experiments, 3- to 6-year-olds were randomly assigned to one of three game application conditions (prosocial, violent, or neutral). Prosocial behaviors after the game were examined with laboratory tasks and vignettes. Experiment 1 (N = 186) showed that playing the prosocial game application produced higher levels of helping behavior towards the experimenter than playing the violent and neutral games. Experiment 2 (N = 189) found a wider range of effects of the prosocial application play on children's prosocial behaviors towards same-aged actual and hypothetical peers compared to the violent and neutral game conditions. Low theory-of-mind and high empathic abilities moderated and enhanced the effects of prosocial application play on prosocial outcomes. These findings suggest that touch screen applications may contribute to fostering prosocial behavior in early childhood.

An Analysis on the Research Trends of Parental Factors Affecting Pro-social Behavior in Young Children: Focusing on Domestic Journals from 2001 to 2020

An Analysis on the Research Trends of Parental Factors Affecting Pro-social Behavior in Young Children: Focusing on Domestic Journals from 2001 to 2020

Description of prosocial behavior in young children with intellectual disability in East Nusa Tenggara


 
 
 World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund havestated in year 2012 that one of their global agenda is to fulfill the needs of inclusive Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) to increase the participation and development of young children with disabilities. One of important things for the agenda are understanding various special needs of young children with various kind of mental disability, such as mental retardation or nowadays known as intellectual disability. This research aims to narratively describe the prosocial behaviors of a young child with intellectual disability in special school of Pembina Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. This research used qualitative approach with child observation and interview to the parents as the main technique to gather data. This research shows that prosocial behaviors in young children with intellectual disability are divided into four aspects, those are: a) the ability to join groups, b) supportive acts, c) empathy and caring, and d) self-adjustment. These behaviors were shown in the child’s dailyactivities, her habits, affected by the culture and daily activities of her parents and siblings, and also by the interaction with her friends and family. This research could give important information about the importance of managing the social interaction in inclusive ECCD by putting emphasis in four aspects described above, and also the role of parents and ECCD tutors in facilitating activities that could help stimulate specific needs of social skills in young children with intellectual disability.
 
 

Considering the role of positive emotion in the early emergence of prosocial behavior: Commentary on Hammond and Drummond (2019).

In this commentary, I delineate several questions raised by the Hammond and Drummond (2019) paper: (a) to why there seems to be an association between state positive emotion and prosocial behavior in young children, and if and how early positively tinged prosocial behavior provides a pathway to (b) later prosocial behavior more generally (normatively) and (c) to individual differences in the development of prosocial behavior and motives. In doing so, several possible mechanisms or processes (e.g., maintenance of a positive mood, enjoyment of social interaction, the effect of positive social interaction on caring) are briefly discussed. Moreover, the potential importance of attachment status in understanding the relation of positive emotion to prosocial behavior is highlighted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A Study of Cooperative Learning and Independence: Impact on Children's Prosocial Behavior

The purpose of the study was to analyze the impact of cooperative learning with the PAP and STAD methods and independence on young children's prosocial behavior. The research used an experimental method. The sample consisted of 48 children. Data were analyzed with the 2-factor ANOVA variants, followed by an interaction test between variables using the Tuckey test. The results show that there were differences in the prosocial behaviors between the group of children with high and low independence. Different method of cooperative learning used influenced young children’s prosocial behavior diffierently. There was also an interaction between cooperative learning and independence towards young children’s prosocial behavior. The implication of this research is that teachers as educators and counselors are required to carry out systematic and ongoing prosocial education as a form of example for children. Teachers wishing to teach with cooperative learning should choose a method appropriate to children’s characteristics. In addition, it is important to increase teachers’ motivation in teaching.

Playing a cooperative game promotes preschoolers' sharing with third-parties, but not social inclusion.

This study examined the effect of gaming context on young children’s prosocial behaviors. Dyads of 4- to 5-year-old children (N = 96) played the same game cooperatively, competitively, or solitarily. After playing the game for a total of ten minutes, sharing with and social inclusion of uninvolved third-parties as well as free play with previous co-players was observed. Children shared less with third-parties after playing the game competitively than after playing it cooperatively. Playing a solitary game resulted in intermediate levels of sharing. The structure of the game did not differentially impact measures of social inclusion or free play.

Influences of group physical activities using ropes on young children's prosocial behavior

Influences of group physical activities using ropes on young children's prosocial behavior

Building Pro-social Behavior in Young Children through Project Approach 'Soccer'

Building Pro-social Behavior in Young Children through Project Approach 'Soccer'

Maternal socialization goals and the spontaneous prosocial behavior of children in rural contexts

The purpose of this descriptive-correlational study was to investigate possible associations between maternal socialization goals and prosocial behavior (spontaneous helping) among children living in a rural context. This study involved 39 dyads of mothers, aged 17 to 48 years (M = 24.28 years, SD = 5.97), and their children, with a mean age of 24 months. The data collection included a Sociocultural Sociodemographic Characterization Questionnaire (SSCQ), a Socialization Goals Questionnaire (SGQ), and a Spontaneous Prosocial Behavior Task (SPBT). Most importantly, we found that the maternal socialization goal to “Learning to support others” exhibited a significant correlation (r = 0.40, p < 0.05) with the helping task performed by the children. This finding sustains the hypothesis that maternal goals, which emphasize the importance of their children in learning to help others, are correlated with an increased frequency of prosocial behavior in young children, around their second birthday.

Do storybooks with anthropomorphized animal characters promote prosocial behaviors in young children?

For millennia, adults have told children stories not only to entertain but also to impart important moral lessons to promote prosocial behaviors. Many such stories contain anthropomorphized animals because it is believed that children learn from anthropomorphic stories as effectively, if not better than, from stories with human characters, and thus are more inclined to act according to the moral lessons of the stories. Here we experimentally tested this belief by reading preschoolers a sharing story with either human characters or anthropomorphized animal characters. Reading the human story significantly increased preschoolers' altruistic giving but reading the anthropomorphic story or a control story decreased it. Thus, contrary to the common belief, realistic stories, not anthropomorphic ones, are better for promoting young children's prosocial behavior.

Increasing Social Behaviors in Young Children with Social-Communication Delays in a Group Arrangement in Preschool

Abstract Young children with disabilities are less likely to display age-appropriate social behaviors than same-age peers with typical social development, especially children who display social-communication delays. In this study, two concurrently operating single case designs were used to evaluate the use of progressive time delay (PTD) to teach children with disabilities to share and to name peer preferences during dyadic instruction. PTD was effective for teaching children to share and to identify peer preferences. All participants generalized 50 to 100% of peer preference targets to typical classroom activities (e.g., selecting their peer's preferred snack before mealtime), with mixed results regarding sharing during an art activity. Keywords: systematic instruction, sharing, peer preferences, preschool, young children ********** Pro-social behaviors influence the development of friendships beginning in early childhood (Odom, Schertz, Munson, & Brown, 2004), potentially impacting long-term success in academic and social settings (Lane, Stanton-Chapman, Jamison, & Phillips, 2007). High-quality preschool programs focus on increasing pro-social behaviors in young children with and without disabilities (Division for Early Childhood [DEC] and National Association for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC], 2009; Wolery, 2005), providing numerous opportunities for interactions (Grisham-Brown, Hem meter, & Pretti-Frontczak, 2005). However, young children with disabilities are more likely to display social delays that impede appropriate peer interactions, potentially leading to rejection from peer groups (Guralnick, 1999). Young children with disabilities may require structured opportunities for peer-to-peer interactions to recognize the potentially "complex discriminative stimuli" that set the occasion for age-appropriate social behaviors (Ledford & Wolery, 2013, p. 440). Increasing age-appropriate pro-social behaviors in young children with disabilities requires practitioners to select target behaviors common in peer-to-peer interactions. Pro-social behaviors, such as initiating conversations (e.g., commenting on a peer's preferred interest), helping behaviors (providing assistance or aid), and sharing items with peers (giving an item so a peer can engage in or have the same or similar materials during an activity), are behaviors young children with typical social development commonly demonstrate in preschool classrooms (e.g., Babcock, Hartle, & Lamme, 1995). In addition, young children are more likely to identify peers who help and share items as "nice" and as "friends" (Tisak, Holub, & Tisak, 2007), potentially leading to increases in meaningful peer-to-peer interactions. Young children with social-communication delays (SCD), such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), are less likely to initiate and attend to peers' social initiations than children with intellectual disability or typical development (Bregman & Higdon, 2012) and may display difficulties taking the perspective of others (known as Theory of Mind Impairments [ToM]; Millward, Powell, Messer, & Jordan, 2000; Mundy & Thorp, 2006; Zager, Wehmeyer, & Simpson, 2012), indicating a need for evidence-based interventions that directly teach pro-social behaviors with peers (Reichow & Volkmar, 2010; White, Keonig, & Scahill, 2007; Wolery & Hemmeter, 2011). Direct instruction regarding peer preferences may increase pro-social behaviors by providing contextual support when teaching helping and related behaviors (e.g., conversation skills). One study assessed learning a peer's preferences by presenting this information as instructive feedback during small group academic instruction; all participants learned some of the information without direct instruction, but generalization was not assessed (Lane, Gast, Shepley, & Ledford, 2015). Although knowing a peer's preferences may set the occasion for pro-social behaviors (e. …

Evidence of reactive gene-environment correlation in preschoolers' prosocial play with unfamiliar peers.

The development of prosocial behaviors during the preschool years is essential for children's positive interactions with peers in school and other social situations. Although there is some evidence of genetic influences on prosocial behaviors, very little is known about how genes and environment, independently and in concert, affect prosocial behaviors in young children. This study of 126 twin and sibling pairs examined 5-year-old preschool children's positive behaviors (prosocial and easy-going) while playing freely with an unfamiliar, same-age, same-sex peer. Children were randomly paired, allowing us to rule out passive (parent-influenced environment) and active (child-driven peer choices) gene-environment correlations as potential influences on the results. We found evidence of reactive gene-environment correlation, demonstrating that children who are genetically more likely to act prosocially and to be temperamentally outgoing appear to evoke more prosocial and easy-going behaviors from an unfamiliar peer. We also found that both dominant genetic and nonshared environmental factors were significant influences on preschoolers' prosocial play behaviors, but that neither genetic nor shared environmental factors were significant for easy-going play behaviors. These findings shed important light on influences of prosocial behaviors in preschoolers. Via inherited tendencies, preschool children's positive behaviors evoke similar positive behaviors from their play peers. Given that prosocial behaviors are preludes to a large range of important socially appropriate behaviors, prosocial children should be encouraged to interact with their peers to potentially create a more positive atmosphere within social contexts.

The effects of intergroup competition on prosocial behaviors in young children: a comparison of 2.5-3.5 year-olds with 5.5-6.5 year-olds.

Group-based competition is considered to be a ubiquitous social context in human society. However, little is known about its potential effects on children’s prosocial behaviors. To this end, we designed an experiment in which two age groups (2.5–3.5 years of age and 5.5–6.5 years of age) engaged in an intergroup competition task where they did a so-called “game” where each child transferred table tennis balls with a spoon from one container to the other. The non-intergroup competition condition was identical to the intergroup competition condition with one exception—no intergroup competition manipulation was involved. Then, they were required to perform two economic games used to measure their prosocial behaviors. We found that under the non-intergroup competition condition, as children aged, their behaviors tended to be more fairness-oriented (such as an increase in egalitarian behaviors). However, under the intergroup competition condition, children at 2.5–3.5 years of age tended to behave prosocially towards their ingroup members compared with those who are at 5.5–6.5 years of age. The behavioral pattern under the intergroup competition condition reflects strengthening prosocial tendencies driven by the intergroup competition in younger children and simultaneously weakening intergroup competition-driven prosocial tendencies possibly due to the development of fairness-oriented behaviors in older children. Taken together, these results point to the importance of considering the effects of competitive contexts on children’s social behaviors and may have important implications for further research on the role of competitive contexts in the development of human prosocial behaviors.

Promoting prosocial behavior and self-regulatory skills in preschool children through a mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum.

Self-regulatory abilities are robust predictors of important outcomes across the life span, yet they are rarely taught explicitly in school. Using a randomized controlled design, the present study investigated the effects of a 12-week mindfulness-based Kindness Curriculum (KC) delivered in a public school setting on executive function, self-regulation, and prosocial behavior in a sample of 68 preschool children. The KC intervention group showed greater improvements in social competence and earned higher report card grades in domains of learning, health, and social-emotional development, whereas the control group exhibited more selfish behavior over time. Interpretation of effect sizes overall indicate small to medium effects favoring the KC group on measures of cognitive flexibility and delay of gratification. Baseline functioning was found to moderate treatment effects with KC children initially lower in social competence and executive functioning demonstrating larger gains in social competence relative to the control group. These findings, observed over a relatively short intervention period, support the promise of this program for promoting self-regulation and prosocial behavior in young children. They also support the need for future investigation of program implementation across diverse settings.

유아의 기질과 정서조절 및 교사-유아 관계가 친사회적 행동에 미치는 영향

본 연구는 유아의 친사회적 행동에 대한 유아의 기질, 정서조절 및 교사-유아 관계의 직 간접적인 영향을 남아와 여아를 구분하여 살펴보고자 하였다. 본 연구의 대상은 만 3, 4, 5세 유아 373명과 그들의 교사 32명이다. 수집된 자료는 t-test, Pearson's correlation, path analysis를 통하여 분석 되었다. 그 결과 유아의 친사회적 행동은 여아가 남아보다 더 많은 것으로 볼 수 있다. 유아의 친사회적 행동에 기질적 특성은 의미 있는 영향을 미치며 이 중 사회성은 성에 관계없이, 활동성은 여아의 경우에 직접적인 영향을 미침을 알 수 있다. 또한 유아의 친사회적 행동에 교사-유아 관계는 남아의 경우에 직접적인 영향을 미치며 사회성, 정서성, 활동성 기질과 친사회적 행동 간의 매개역할도 함을 알 수 있다. 이에 비해 여아의 경우 친사회적 행동에 교사-유아 관계는 정서조절을 매개로 하여 간접적인 영향만 미침을 알 수 있다. 그리고 유아의 친사회적 행동에 정서조절은 성에 관계없이 가장 중요한 선행요인이며 기질과 친사회적 행동 간에 또한 교사-유아 관계와 친사회적 행동 간에 매개 역할도 함을 알 수 있다. This study was to examine the effects of young child's temperament, emotion regulation and teacher-child relationships on young children's prosocial behavior. The subjects of this study were 374 3- 5-year old children and their teachers. The collected data were analyzed by t-test, correlations and pathway analysis. The results were as follows: First, girls' prosocial behavior was found to be higher than boys'. Second, boys' and girls' temperament were found to affect young children's prosocial behavior directly and indirectly through teacher-child relationship and emotion regulation. Third, teacher-child relationships was found to affect boys' prosocial behavior directly and to mediate between boys' temperament and emotion regulation and prosocial behavior. Additionally emotion regulation was found to be the most important variable predicting boys' and girls' prosocial behavior and to mediate between temperament and teacher-child relationship and prosocial behavior.

Discipline Policies in Early Childhood Care and Education Programs: Building an Infrastructure for Social and Academic Success

Research Findings: Preventing challenging behavior in young children is a national priority. The number of young children with behavioral problems is on the rise. Discipline policies can help early childhood programs build an infrastructure that promotes social and academic success. This study sought to document the extent to which existing early childhood program discipline policies implement the essential features for developing high-quality, system-wide (viz., program- and school-wide) discipline policies. Using the Early Childhood Discipline Policy Essentials Checklist, investigators assessed the quality of 65 discipline policies from state-licensed early childhood care and education programs. Practice or Policy: Results revealed that early childhood program discipline policies, for the most part, fail to sufficiently address those essential features known to contribute to reducing challenging behavior and promoting prosocial behavior in young children.

The Development of Prosocial Behaviors in Young Children: A Prospective Population-Based Cohort Study

ABSTRACT Researchers know relatively little about the normative development of children's behaviors aimed at alleviating distress or discomfort in others. In this article, the authors aim to describe the continuity and discontinuity in the degree to which young children in the general population are reported to exhibit specific prosocial behaviors. Data came from the Québec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. Consistent with Hay's model of prosocial development, the results show that there were about as many children who stopped exhibiting prosocial behaviors between 29 and 41 months of age as there were children who started doing so during this period. Further, gender differences (girls > boys) in prosocial behaviors are either emerging or at least increasing in magnitude, with girls being more likely to start and boys being more likely to stop exhibiting these behaviors between 29 and 41 months of age. Consistent with the early-onset hypothesis, children who exhibit prosocial behaviors at 17 months of age are less likely to stop exhibiting the same behaviors between 29 and 41 months of age. Otherwise, if they did not exhibit prosocial behaviors at 29 months of age, they are also more likely to start doing so in the following year.