Ratings Of Prosocial Behavior Research Articles

Does music help children grow up? Parental views from a longitudinal panel study

Previous research has identified families as hubs for musical development, but little is known about the reciprocal effects on familial dynamics. Here, we address the long-term associations between familial music and parental perceptions of their children’s personality. To these ends, we analysed a subset of data from the German Panel Analysis of Intimate Relationships and Family Dynamics study, a longitudinal cohort study. A total of 839 data sets from parents with their children, covering four waves over a period of six years, served as our database. The frequency of engagement in Singing and Playing Musical Instruments, Reading Books or Storytelling and Shopping represented independent measures, whereas the ratings of Prosocial Behaviour, Intimacy, Admiration, and C onflicts served as dependent measures in the panel regression models. A substantial decline in everyday activities was noted as children grew older, with the exception of Shopping. Parental education, but not family net income, was found to be correlated with familial music activities. These activities were correlated with three facets of children’s personality, Prosocial Behaviour, Intimacy, and Admiration, based on both fixed- and random-effects models. The correlations, however, were partially weakened when Reading or Storytelling and Shopping were entered into the models. Our findings suggest that familial music activities may exert long-term and causal influences on familial dynamics, as reflected through important facets of children’s personality.

Parent and adolescent intentions to disclose and links to positive social behavior.

Children's disclosure to parents as a buffer against antisocial behavior, and its parenting antecedents, have been extensively studied in recent years. The influence of parents' own disclosure on children's disclosure and positive social behavior has received little attention, however. We assessed mothers' (n = 149), fathers' (n= 105), and 12- to 14-year-old early adolescents' (n = 127) intentions to disclose about distress-related events and rule transgressions, their reasons for disclosing, and links to positive social behavior (assessed by mothers' ratings of willing compliance and by teachers' [n = 114] ratings of prosocial behavior). Parents reported that they disclosed to teach lessons or to encourage their children to disclose, whereas adolescents said they disclosed for comfort and advice. Child intention to disclose about distressing events mediated between mother (but not father) intention to disclose about these same issues and children's willing compliance, but not prosocial behavior in the classroom. Parent and child disclosure about rule transgressions were not related.

Children’s social behaviour, language and literacy in early years

Using a longitudinal, UK representative sample from the Millennium Cohort Study, the present study examined longitudinal variations in parent ratings of child social, emotional and behavioural difficulties and prosocial behaviour (preschool to end of Key Stage 1); the magnitude of parent-teacher agreement regarding behaviour ratings; and concurrent relationships between behaviour and language and literacy at the end of the Key Stage 1. The findings showed significant downward trends in ratings of young children’s social and behavioural difficulties and an increase in ratings of prosocial behaviour over the 3-7 years period. Ratings of emotional difficulties remained fairly stable over the same period. Also, medium- to- strong language and literacy effects were found for behavioural difficulties (e.g. hyperactivity) and prosocial behaviour. Finally, teacher-parent agreement regarding behaviour ratings was found to be modest and higher for social and behavioural difficulties, hyperactivity in particular, than for emotional symptoms and prosocial behaviour. These findings have important implications for preschool and primary school policy and practice regarding children’s social behaviour.

Genetic and environmental contributions to prosocial behaviour in 2- to 9-year-old South Korean twins.

Although over 50 twin and adoption studies have been performed on the genetic architecture of antisocial behaviour, far fewer studies have investigated prosocial behaviour, and none have done so on a non-western population. The present study examined mothers' ratings of prosocial behaviour in 514 pairs of 2- to 9-year-old South Korean monozygotic and dizygotic twins. Correlational analyses showed a tendency of increasing genetic effects and decreasing shared environmental effects with age although shared family environment effects and the moderating effects of age did not attain statistical significance in model-fitting analyses. The best-fitting model indicated that 55% (95% CI: 45–64%) of the variance in the 2- to 9-year-olds' prosocial behaviour was due to genetic factors and 45% (95% CI: 36–55%) was due to non-shared environmental factors. It is concluded that genetic and environmental influences on prosocial behaviour in young South Koreans are mostly similar to those in western samples.

Psychosocial development in girls of high ability

Gender differences in young highly able children's psychosocial development were investigated using child and teacher ratings of prosocial behavior and peer acceptance. Developmental patterns were addressed by studying two groups – children in the primary grades (1 and 2) and children in grades 3 to 7. No gender differences were found on teacher or child ratings in the younger group. In the older group, gender differences favoring girls were found on teacher ratings of prosocial behavior and peer acceptance. Comparisons of child and teacher ratings by gender showed that the older boys viewed themselves as demonstrating more social skills and as being more accepted by peers than their teachers did. Implications for education and counselling are discussed.

Behavioral and sociocognitive correlates of ratings of prosocial behavior and sociometric status.

Although peers' and teachers' evaluations of children's prosocial behavior and peers' sociometric ratings frequently have been used in studies of social development, the validity of young children's ratings of others has been questioned, as has that for teachers' ratings of prosocial behavior. In this study, preschoolers' ratings of peers' sociometric status and prosocial behavior, as well as teachers' ratings of children's prosocial dispositions, were obtained. These were correlated with children's naturally occurring prosocial or social behavior; ratings of prosocial behavior also were correlated with children's prosocial moral reasoning and prosocial self-attributions. Peers' sociometric ratings were positively related to children's sociability whereas prosocial ratings were related to helping (but not sharing) behavior. Teachers' ratings of prosocial behavior were not related to frequency of prosocial behaviors, but were positively related to developmentally mature moral judgments and self-reported motives.