Search

According to the heuristic model of emotion socialization by Eisenberg et al., parental reactions to children's negative emotions (RCNE) have an important role in this socialization process; however, its effects on children's social-emotional outcomes may be moderated by the children's temperament. This longitudinal study verified this proposition by testing maternal and paternal RCNE as predictors of preschoolers' behavioral adjustment and child inhibitory control as a moderator of these associations. Mothers and fathers of 113 Chinese children (M[subscript age] = 57.41 months, SD = 7.16 months) reported on their RCNE and child inhibitory control at Time 1 (T1) and reported on child behavioral adjustment (i.e., externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and prosocial behaviors) both at T1 and 6 months later (Time 2, T2). Multiple linear regression analyses showed that after controlling for child behavioral adjustment at T1, child age, and paternal education level, (a) paternal supportive reactions negatively predicted child externalizing problems and positively predicted child prosocial behaviors, and (b) the associations between parental RCNE and child behavioral adjustment were moderated by child inhibitory control. Specifically, only for children low on inhibitory control, paternal supportive reactions negatively predicted child externalizing problems, and maternal supportive reactions positively predicted child prosocial behaviors.

Few studies on the development of forgiveness involved young children and adolescents, and very few involved samples from non-western countries. This study focused on the development of willingness to forgive a particular transgression in participants aged 4 to 12 years and from two different cultures: a South African culture (Mozambique) and a Western European culture (France). Overall, 153 pupils from Mozambique and 107 pupils from France were presented with eight vignettes depicting a situation where a young child, intentionally or accidentally, dropped a small radio that they borrowed from another young child. These vignettes were composed by applying an orthogonal Intent × Consequences × Apologies, 2 × 2 × 2, design. Participants expressed what their willingness to forgive would be in each case on a continuous response scale. Through cluster analysis, four main positions were identified. They were labeled: "Almost never forgive" (11% of participants), "Depends mainly on consequences" (22%), "Depends mainly on intent and apologies" (57%), and "Almost always forgive" (2%). The first two positions were typical of 4-7-year olds, and the third one was typical of 8-12-year olds. No significant differences in cluster composition were found between the Mozambican and French participants. Up to the age of four, most children probably do not have access to the notion of forgiveness. From the age of four to seven, this notion begins to appear, in particular through a gradual taking into account of circumstantial factors other than the severity of consequences of a transgression. This development is quite rapid - probably during the 7-year period, from 0 to 7 years. From the age of eight onwards, a forgiveness schema similar to that observed in adults is operational. This developmental trajectory is probably very general. It seems to depend little on the type of culture in which it develops.

This study examined the association between internalizing and externalizing mental health and prosociality across four developmental transitions. The effects of parent-child interactions on mental health and prosociality were also explored. The data from a community sample of 10,703 children on mental health, prosociality, child maltreatment, parent-child relationships, parental mental health, and socioeconomic status were derived from the Millennium Cohort Study to cover the developmental periods from early childhood to late adolescence (ages 5, 7, 11, 14, 17). Adjusting for covariates, latent trait-state-occasion and cross-lag modeling were deployed. The results indicated that internalizing and externalizing mental health symptoms, and prosociality were more trait-like throughout adolescence. Only within-person increase in externalizing symptoms predicted decrease in subsequent within-person prosociality from middle childhood to late adolescence. Parent-child conflict and maltreatment had deleterious effects on children's prosociality and mental health. Mental health professionals should screen for both possible mental health problems and deficits in prosociality. Interventions aiming to improve the quality of parent--child relationships could be beneficial for the development of child mental health and prosociality.

This study investigated the relationship between traumatic life stress, trust, and prosocial behavior as a positive mental health outcome in Syrian refugee children in Canada. Trust is a resilience factor shown to promote adjustment after resettlement. The specific goals of the study were to test the influence of refugee children's traumatic life stress on their prosocial behavior and the mediating role of trust in this link. Five- to 12-year-old Syrian refugee children (N = 124) and their caregivers (N = 51) who recently resettled in Canada participated in this study. Children retrospectively reported their experiences of traumatic life stressors, and caregivers reported their children's current level of trust and prosocial behavior using questionnaires. Traumatic life stress (e.g., witnessing violence and conflict, separation from family, death of family members) was negatively related to refugee children's trust in others, while trust was related to more prosocial behaviors, confirming its mediating role. These results suggest that experiencing more traumatic life stressors is associated with less prosocial behaviors as a positive mental health outcome through lower levels of trust. The current findings suggest that fostering trust may be a promising avenue for intervention to promote prosocial behavior and resilience in refugee children who are resettling in a new society.

The goal of this study was to examine the prospective associations of prosocial behavior and aggression with social preference in classrooms and whether these associations were moderated by classroom levels of peer-perceived liking and disliking by the teacher. Participants were 2900 fourth-to sixth-grade students in South Korea (M[subscript age] = 10.02 years, SD = 0.84, 48.6% girls) who completed peer nominations at the beginning (Time 1) and end (Time 2) of their school year. The peer nominations included who they liked most and liked least in their classroom, who they saw as prosocial and aggressive, and who they thought was liked and disliked by their teacher. Nominations received were calculated for all individual students. To indicate the classroom levels of peer-perceived liking and disliking by the teacher, we calculated the total number of nominations given in the classroom and divided it by the maximum possible nominations. Multilevel analyses were conducted. At the level of the individual, social preference at Time 2 was positively predicted by prosocial behavior and negatively by aggression at Time 1, controlling for social preference at Time 1. These associations were moderated by the peer reputation as liked and disliked by the teacher. At the level of the classroom, social preference at Time 2 tended to increase over time in classrooms with high levels of peer-perceived liking by the teacher but decreased in classrooms with high levels of peer-perceived disliking by the teacher. Classroom levels of peer-perceived liking by the teacher moderated the positive association of prosocial behavior at Time 1 with preference at Time 2: this association was stronger in classrooms with higher levels of peer-perceived liking by the teacher. Thus, classroom levels of peer-perceived liking by the teacher had positive effects for individual students and the classroom as a whole. Future studies should address how teacher-student relationships can contribute to a positive classroom context that facilitates students' well-being, learning, and development.

We examined Canadian host-society children's prosociality (i.e., emotions and behaviors that reflect care for the welfare of others) toward refugee newcomer peers and the role of parental socialization (i.e., frequency of parent-child conversations about refugee newcomers) in children's refugee-specific prosociality. The sample included 168 children (ages 6, 9, and 12 years; 51% girls; 58% European ethnicity) and their primary caregivers. We interviewed children to assess their ethical guilt-related emotions (based on emotions and reasoning) in response to a hypothetical vignette depicting prosocial omission involving a refugee newcomer peer or a non-refugee peer (between-subjects manipulation). A donation task was used to assess prosocial behavior wherein children were given the opportunity to donate chocolate coins to a refugee newcomer peer. Parents reported on how often they typically engage in conversations with their children about refugees and about inclusion. Children experienced similar intensities of ethical guilt-related emotions in the refugee compared with the nonrefugee condition, and donations to refugees increased across age groups. Furthermore, children whose parents engaged them in more frequent conversations about refugees expressed stronger ethical guilt-related emotions toward refugee peers (but not toward host-society peers), and donated more to a refugee peer. No significant associations between conversations about inclusion more broadly and refugee-specific prosociality were found. Encouraging parents to have conversations with their children that focus on the experiences of refugees may be important for fostering kindness between refugees and host-society children. Ultimately, these findings may contribute to initiatives that focus on promoting the inclusion of refugee newcomers in their postmigratory societies.

We assessed the psychometric properties of the Social Behavior Questionnaire (SBQ), a 30-item questionnaire evaluating social (e.g., disruptive behaviors, bullying) and emotional problems (e.g., anxiety, depression) among children aged 3.5-12 years. Children (n = 1,950, 50.21% boys) were drawn from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. Mothers reported the frequency with which children presented social and emotional behaviors from 3.5 to 8 years of age, and teachers from 6 to 12 years. We assessed internal structure using Confirmatory Factor Analysis, reliability using Cronbach's alpha, and convergent and discriminant validity using a multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) approach. The six-factor (emotional distress, withdrawal, impulsive/hyperactive/inattentive, disruptive behaviors, prosocial behaviors, and peer relationships difficulties) structure of the SBQ showed good fit from ages 3.5 to 12 years. Reliability estimates were good to excellent (alphas > 0.7), and MTMM showed good convergent and discriminant validity. Overall, the SBQ presented good psychometric properties with a large population-based sample aged 3.5-12 years. Further studies should assess its screening potential by investigating its convergent validity with diagnostic information.

The Adult Prosocialness Behavior Scale (APBS) is most often used to measure adult prosociality. We conducted a reliability generalization meta-analysis to compute the average APBS reliability and examine the heterogeneity among reliability estimations and the influence of moderator variables. An exhaustive search identified 74 articles that applied the APBS with 16 items assessed on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Of these, 58 had reliability coefficients with the current data, and 76 reliability estimates were provided. Random- and mixed-effects models were used. The average reliability coefficient was 0.903 for Cronbach's alpha, 0.896 for McDonald's omega, and 0.674 for test-retest. Moderator analyses were used to create a predictive model in which the target population and study language accounted for 48.7% of the total variability among Cronbach's alpha coefficients. Although the APBS has shown satisfactory internal consistency, it can vary as a function of several factors.

Narcissistic youth use social media to engage in a variety of self-promotional behaviors, which have either antisocial or prosocial characteristics. Differing views exist to explain the processes underlying narcissistic self-promotion, either characterizing these actions as intentional, or as impulsive. This study compared intentional attention-seeking and impulsivity as potential mediators of relations between narcissism and both aggressive (i.e., cyberbullying) and prosocial online behavior, and examined whether youth's loneliness might strengthen these associations. Among Chinese early adolescents (N = 213, M[subscript age] = 13.26), narcissism positively predicted youth-reported cyberbullying offending and online prosocial behavior. Loneliness moderated the link between narcissism and attention-seeking, but not impulsivity. Among adolescents higher in loneliness, narcissism indirectly predicted cyberbullying and online prosocial behaviors via attention-seeking. These results highlight narcissism, loneliness, and their interplay as potential predictors of youth's social media behaviors. Links with attention-seeking, in particular, suggest that educators and practitioners might target youth's conscious expectations for social rewards when counseling narcissistic adolescents about self-promotional social media use.

Defending a victimized peer is a socially risky behavior that may require high peer status and may depend on how popular or disliked bullies are in the classroom (i.e., within-classroom correlations between bullying and status). Past research has investigated defending as a unidimensional construct, though it can involve confronting the bully (bully-oriented defending) or supporting the victim (victim-oriented defending). This study used multilevel modeling to examine the effects of individual peer status, gender, and bullying as well as two indicators of classroom norms--the bullying-popularity norm and the bullying-rejection norm--on both types of defending. Our sample included 1,460 Dutch adolescents (50% girls; M[subscript age] 11 years) from 59 classrooms in 50 schools. Likability and popularity were positively associated with both types of defending. Being female and lower in bullying was associated with victim-oriented defending, whereas being male and higher in bullying was associated with bully-oriented defending. In classrooms where bullies were more rejected, both types of defending were more prevalent, and the positive associations of likability and popularity with victim-oriented defending were stronger. The positive effect of the bullying-rejection norm on victim-oriented defending was stronger for girls. Moreover, the effect of popularity on bully-oriented defending was stronger in classrooms where bullies were less popular.

This study investigates the extent to which defending victims of bullying depends on liking and disliking and its relation with the classroom bullying norm (descriptive and popularity) in a sample of 1,272 students (50.8% boys) in 48 fifth-grade classrooms. Social network analysis with bivariate exponential random graph modelings showed that children are more likely to defend victims whom they like, who like them, and who are liked by the same classmates than victims who they dislike, who dislike them, and with whom they share antipathies by and to the same classmates. In addition, the analysis showed that bullying norms had an inconclusive effect on the relation between defending and (dis)liking.

Previous research debated whether and to which extent normative views and own resource distribution behavior in childhood are dissociated or aligned. The present study aims to advance this debate by examining the relation from two different methodological viewpoints within the same study. Here, 4-6-year-old children's (N = 91) normative views and distribution behavior when confronted with a rich friend and a poor non-friend were assessed. Children's spontaneous protest and affirmation toward distributors, evaluations, and punishment judgments served as normative indicators. Looking at average normative views and behavior, preschoolers held a normative view toward rectifying inequalities while favoring the rich friend themselves. Looking at the consistency of interindividual differences, preschooler's normative view correlated with behavior. The study highlights that the relation between normative views and behavior is characterized by both dissociation and coherence.

This longitudinal study was initiated to assess the predictors of peer- and teacher-identified Chinese adolescent leaders. Participants were 764 8th grade (14.42 years, 348 girls) and 783 11th grade (17.67 years, 427 girls) students that completed two waves of data collection separated by 1 year. Prosocial behavior, aggression, and the interaction between aggression and effortful control concurrently and longitudinally predicted peer- and teacher-identified leadership. A person-centered analysis revealed that 56.8% of the peer-identified and 37.6% of the teacher-identified leaders exhibited both prosocial and aggressive behavior. Consistent with Confucian ideas, prosocial behavior was strongly associated with leadership in both the variable- and person-centered analyses. These results suggest that the bistrategic model in conjunction with effortful control may be useful for understanding youth leadership contextualized within cultural norms.

Evidence suggests an impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, particularly among emerging adults. However, theories on altruism born of suffering or adversarial growth suggest that we might also see prosocial behavior as a function of the pandemic, which may protect against mental health challenges. Because cultural values are central in determining prosocial behavior, the current study explored how cultural values were differentially associated with adaptive prosocial behaviors that might protect against mental health challenges. Participants for the current study included 5,682 young people aged 18-25 years from 14 different countries around the world (68% female, 62% college students). Path analyses suggested that there were few differences in patterns as a function of culture, but revealed that horizontal individualism and horizontal and vertical collectivism were indirectly associated with lower levels of depression via prosocial behavior toward family members. Discussion focuses on the importance of coping by strengthening family relationships via prosocial behavior during the pandemic.

The objective of this study was to examine the relation between personality traits and prosocial lie-telling in children. A sample of 187 children aged 8-12 years (M[subscript age] = 9.74 years, SD[subscript age] = 1.01) was recruited from elementary schools in the south of France. The children's prosocial lies were measured using the Helping Scenario, and personality was assessed using the Big Five Questionnaire for Children. Results indicated that compared to children with lower scores, children with high agreeableness scores were more likely to agree to lie to help others at their own expense, suggesting that personality may play a role in the decision-making process of lying to help others in this age-group.

Research on young offenders has primarily focused on identifying predictors of the maladaptive, aggressive behavior; there is a scarcity of evidence on factors that relate to prosocial behavior in these adolescents. The current study examined the link from parenting, emotional instability, and prosocial reasoning to prosocial behavior, while also examining the mediating roles of empathic concern (EC) and perspective taking (PT) in a sample of Spanish adolescent offenders compared to a sample of nonoffenders. Participants were 440 adolescents: 220 young offenders residing in four Youth Detention Centres of Valencia (67.3% men) and 220 enrolled in public and private schools within the metropolitan area of Valencia (65.9% men). The two subsamples were similar in age (15-18 years), gender, and social class. Analyses show differences in mother's permissiveness with empathy (PT and EC), in emotional instability and internalized reasoning with PT in predicting prosocial behavior in offenders and nonoffenders adolescents. EC and PT are significative and positively related to prosocial behavior in both groups. These findings have implications for prevention and reeducation interventions oriented to social reinsertion of adolescent offenders and the development of family and social counseling programs that favor adaptive behavior.

The current study examined the heterogeneity in the development of school-based prosocial behavior from Grades 1 to 12 and the role of multiple early childhood antecedents in predicting heterogeneous developmental trajectories of prosocial behavior in a sample of 784 children facing early risks and vulnerabilities (predominantly from low-income families and academically at risk; 52.6% male). In alignment with the risk and resilience framework, antecedents consisted of risk and protective factors from both individual (i.e., ego-resilient personality, behavior problems, intelligence, academic performance, gender, and ethnicity) and contextual domains (i.e., maternal support and responsiveness, family socioeconomic adversity, teacher-child warmth and conflict, and peer acceptance and rejection). We identified four distinct prosocial trajectories including a high-stable (52.5%), high-desisting (15%), moderate-increasing (20.6%), and low-stable class (11.9%). Results revealed that the low-stable, high-desisting, and moderate-increasing classes were associated with lower ego resiliency, higher behavior problems, lower teacher-child warmth, higher teacher-child conflict, and peer rejection in early childhood, compared to the high-stable group. Boys and African Americans were more likely to be in the low-stable, high-desisting, and moderate-increasing classes. Individual characteristics such as ego-resilient personality and contextual influences such as teacher-child warmth served as common protective antecedents. Interestingly, teacher-child conflict served as a unique predictor for the high-desisting class, and behavior problems and peer rejection served as unique predictors for the low-stable class.

Parental incarceration (PI) is negatively associated with emotional, educational, and psychological child outcomes. However, few studies explore potential mechanisms through which these outcomes are transmitted or the means by which prosocial outcomes might develop. This study used data from two waves of a population cohort study of children aged 9 years and followed up aged 13 years living in Ireland. Children and parents (N = 8,568) completed measures of PI, primary caregiver (PCG) depression, PCG-child relationship quality, and child behavioral adjustment. We then conducted a secondary analysis on this national longitudinal study of children in Ireland. Using sequential mediation models, we observed a mediated indirect effect of PI on prosocial outcomes via PCG depression and PCG-child relationship quality. PI at age 9 was associated with increased difficulties and reduced prosocial behavior at age 13. Additionally, PI at age 9 affected PCG depression and the PCG-child relationship quality. Additionally, child prosocial outcomes, and emotional and behavioral difficulties were less apparent where PI had a weaker effect on PCG depression and the quality of PCG-child relationship. Supports that can mitigate the impact of PI for vulnerable caregivers and children are discussed.

Amid protracted conflict, children are raised in divided contexts that shape the development of their intergroup attitudes and behaviors. Social identity development theory (SIDT) suggests that in-group preference may contribute to more negative out-group attitudes and behaviors in middle childhood. In such contexts, in-group favoritism may shape resource distribution, a key indicator of prosocial behavior. This study examined the predictors of resource distribution among 387 children (age: M = 9.59, SD = 2.34) of majority (Jewish) and minority (Arab-Muslim) groups in Israel. Rooted in SIDT, a multiple-group chain mediation found that the effect of age on out-group prosocial giving was serially mediated by the child's in-group symbol preference and negative out-group attitudes. The mediation held across both majority and minority groups, highlighting the underlying developmental process of prosocial giving across group lines in a divided society.

This observational study focuses on prosocial behaviors of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during an interaction with their older, typically developing sibling (TD-Sibs). Twenty-eight sibling dyads, in which the younger sibling was diagnosed with ASD (ASD-Sibs), were video-recorded at home playing a game of their choice. Video recordings were microanalyzed, measuring frame-by-frame observational indices of prosocial behaviors. Siblings' interactions were mostly collaborative. During the interaction, the older TD-Sibs initiated more actions and the younger ASD-Sibs imitated more. The frequency of the prosocial behaviors of the ASD-Sib was associated with the frequency of the TD-Sib's prosocial behaviors. The findings emphasize the importance of sibling interactions as an opportunity for children with ASD to practice prosocial behaviors.

The current study was designed to address gaps in the existing literature by examining the role of discrimination and familism values as predictors of multiple forms of prosocial behaviors across time in a sample of recent immigrant Latino/a adolescents. Participants were 302 recent immigrant Latino/a adolescents (53.3% male; average age 14.51 years, range = 13-17). Data were collected from adolescents in two U.S. cities: Los Angeles (n = 150) and Miami (n = 152). Adolescents completed measures of their own discrimination experiences, familism values, and tendency to engage in six forms of prosocial behaviors. Results indicated generally positive links between familism values and prosocial behaviors. Discrimination also positively predicted public prosocial behaviors and negatively predicted altruistic prosocial behaviors. We discuss the development of cultural processes and perceptions of discrimination experiences, and how these factors predict helping behaviors among immigrant adolescents.

In a paradigm of simulated stranger distress designed to elicit empathic arousal, this study examined multiple elements of responding in 61 preschoolers. Disengagement from stranger distress was underscored in addition to prosocial responding. All children encountered a female adult stranger feigning stomach ache followed by an infant manikin emitting cry sound in a bassinet. Behaviors were coded for other-oriented behaviors, personal distress, and disengagement. In contrast to the traditional supposition, behaviors indicative of personal distress covaried positively with empathic concern and negatively with disengagement. The findings of multiple regression analysis demonstrated how empathic concern and personal distress jointly related to disengaging behaviors in children's response to stranger distress.

The current study aimed to investigate the cultural differences in the developmental origins of children's intent-based moral judgment and moral behavior in the context of indirect reciprocity. To this end, we compared how German and Chinese children interpret and react to antisocial and prosocial interactions between puppets. An actor puppet performed either a positive or negative act toward a prosocial or antisocial target puppet with the intention to cause harm or not; 197 three and five-year-old children participated as a third party and were asked to judge the actor puppet's behavior and to distribute stickers. Results showed that 3-year-old Chinese children were able to take intention and context into account when making moral judgments and distributing resources, whereas German children did not show sensitivity to intention until the age of 5. These findings suggest that culture may mediate children's intent-based moral judgment and moral behavior in the context of indirect reciprocity.

Prosocial behavior is a highly heterogeneous construct, and young children use distinct prosocial actions in response to differing emotional needs of another person. This study examined whether toddlers' prosocial responses differed in response to two understudied emotional contexts--whether or not children caused a victim's distress and the specific emotion expressed by the victim. Toddlers (N = 86; M[subscript age] = 35 months) and their parent participated in two separate mishap paradigms in which parents feigned pain and sadness, respectively. Half of the sample was led to believe they had transgressed to cause their parent's distress, whereas the other half simply witnessed parent distress as bystanders. Results indicated that toddlers were overall equally prosocial when they were transgressors compared to when they were bystanders and significantly more prosocial in response to sadness than pain. Toddlers were significantly more likely to use affection as transgressors than bystanders, information seeking as bystanders than transgressors, and affection in response to pain than sadness. All children used greater helping in response to sadness than pain, and this was especially true when they were bystanders. Findings add to mounting evidence of the complexity of prosocial action in early childhood by identifying that two, distinct emotional contexts influence the amount and type of prosocial behaviors that toddlers use to help others.

Despite abundant research on the benefits of dispositional mindfulness and mindfulness-based interventions, little is known about the naturally occurring developmental course of mindful awareness. Given dramatic strides during adolescence in competencies that may support mindfulness (e.g., emotion regulation), the high school years are a suitable window to study developmental changes in mindfulness. Using an accelerated cohort design to examine the longitudinal trajectory of mindfulness from 9th grade through 12th grade, we employed data from a 5-year study of 3,453 U.S. adolescents (55% female; 40% Latinx, 38% White, 13% Black, and 7% Asian) from high schools in three geographical regions in the U.S. Adolescents annually completed self-report surveys measuring mindful awareness and several internal and external factors. Latent growth curve analyses found that, after controlling for cohort, there was no average linear change in mindful awareness from grades 9 through 12, although there was significant interindividual variability in slopes. Within-person analyses found that in grades when needs-supportive climate was higher and discrimination was lower, adolescents reported greater mindful awareness. Unexpectedly, in grades when perspective taking and prosocial behaviors were higher, mindfulness was lower. These findings inform developmental understanding of mindful awareness and the ways that it naturally occurs and is supported during adolescence.

In Western cultures, the sexualization of children has increased over the past decades. In two studies, we investigated the consequences of children's sexualization for their peers' willingness to provide help in a case of bullying. In both studies, children (total N = 396; ages 7 to 11 years) were randomly assigned to view either a sexualized or non-sexualized target and answered questions about the target's traits and treatment. Our findings provide evidence that early sexualization exposes preadolescent children to the dehumanizing consequences associated with adult women's sexualization. We found that sexualized targets were perceived as less than fully human in terms of both human nature and human uniqueness (Studies 1 and 2) and that, among girls, human nature ratings mediated the association between sexualization and reduced helping intentions toward both male (Study 2) and female targets (Studies 1 and 2).

In peer nomination research, individuals who do not provide nominations (nonparticipants) are often included on rosters as potential nominees. This can present ethical questions regarding informed consent, but psychometric consequences of excluding nonparticipants from rosters are unknown. In this investigation, Study 1 simulated both random and systematic missingness with a sample of 1,630 Dutch adolescents, comparing the reliability and correlation matrices of nomination measures when nonparticipants were included and excluded as nominees. Study 2 began with a two-school sample that already included systematic nonparticipation (˜19% missingness among 599 7th grade nominees) and examined how findings would differ if students who had not provided nominations were excluded as nominees. Results showed that the impact of including versus excluding nonparticipants as nominees may vary depending on the type of missingness (Study 1) or in different peer groups (Study 2). Both studies demonstrated that the choice of including versus excluding nonparticipants can affect reliability and intercorrelations in peer nomination data, and provide some evidence that excluding nonparticipants as nominees may compromise peer nomination data quality.

The present study examined adolescents' and mothers' temperament types and their roles in the socioemotional functioning of early adolescents. A total of 869 sixth-grade students and 668 mothers participated in the study. The students rated their temperament and socioemotional functioning and the mothers rated their own temperament. Latent profile analyses identified four temperament types among the adolescents (resilient, reserved, average, and mixed) and three types among the mothers (resilient, average, and mixed). The results showed that the adolescents with resilient or reserved temperaments reported significantly fewer conduct problems and emotional symptoms, less hyperactivity, and higher prosociality than adolescents with a mixed temperament type. The most adaptive adolescent-mother temperament matches were between a resilient or reserved adolescent and a resilient or average mother; these adolescents reported the highest levels of socioemotional functioning. Mothers with mixed or average temperaments were related to fewer conduct problems and emotional symptoms and less hyperactivity among adolescents with a mixed temperament, while mothers with a resilient temperament type were beneficial for prosocial behavior among adolescents with a mixed temperament. These findings increase understanding of the role of temperament and the interplay between adolescents' and mothers' temperaments in the development of early adolescents' socioemotional adjustment.

The concurrent and longitudinal associations between popularity, likeability, and prosocial behavior were evaluated in this three-year study of middle school and high school Chinese adolescents. The initial sample included 766 middle school (mean age = 13.3 years) and 668 high school participants (mean age = 16.6 years); there were 880 (399 girls) middle school and 841 (450 girls) adolescents who participated in at least one year of data collection. Significant positive associations between popularity, prosociality, and academic achievement were found. Both popularity and likeability concurrently predicted significant unique variance in prosocial behavior after controlling for academic achievement; longitudinal cross-lagged analyses revealed bi-directional associations between popularity and prosocial behavior such that popularity positively predicted subsequent prosocial behavior and prosocial behavior predicted subsequent popularity. Cross-cultural research on popularity may profitably focus on variation in prosocial behavior as the relative salience of coercive and prosocial control strategies may vary across cultures.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations of children's emotion knowledge (and its components) and socially appropriate behavior to peer likability in a sample of Italian preschool children at two time-points. At both Time 1 (T1; n = 46 boys, 42 girls) and a year later at Time 2 (T2; n = 26 boys, 22 girls), children's emotion knowledge (i.e., emotion recognition, situation knowledge) was assessed, teachers evaluated children's socially appropriate behavior, and peer likability was measured using a sociometric procedure. A two-wave autoregressive cross-lagged model indicated that children's T1 emotion recognition was associated with higher T2 socially appropriate behavior, and children's T1 socially appropriate behavior was related to higher T2 peer likability, even after controlling for stability in the constructs. Socially appropriate behavior mediated the relation between preschool children's emotion recognition and peer likability. No bidirectional associations were found. The results support the notion that teacher training should focus on promoting children's emotion knowledge to create a classroom atmosphere characterized by positive social behaviors and harmonious peer relationships across the preschool years.

This study examined the role of children's trust beliefs and trustworthiness in the development of prosocial behavior using data from four waves of a longitudinal study in a large, ethnically-diverse sample of children in Switzerland (mean age = 8.11 years at Time 1, N = 1,028). Prosocial behavior directed towards peers was measured at all assessment points by teacher reports. Children's trust beliefs and their trustworthiness with peers were assessed and calculated by a social relations analysis at the first assessment point using children's reports of the extent to which classmates kept promises. In addition, teacher reports of children's trustworthiness were assessed at all four assessment points. Latent growth curve modeling yielded a decrease in prosocial behavior over time. Peer- and teacher-reported trustworthiness predicted higher initial levels of prosocial behavior, and peer-reported trustworthiness predicted less steep decreases in prosocial behavior over time. Autoregressive cross-lagged analysis also revealed bidirectional longitudinal associations between teacher-reported trustworthiness and prosocial behavior. We discuss the implications of the findings for research on the role of trust in the development of children's prosocial behavior.

This article synthesized evidence for the validity and reliability of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in children aged 3-5 years. A systematic review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses statement guidelines was carried out. Study quality was rated using the Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments. In total, 41 studies were included (56 manuscripts). Two studies examined content and cultural validity, revealing issues with some questions. Six studies discussed language validations with changes to some wording recommended. There was good evidence for discriminative validity (Area Under the Curve = 0.80), convergent validity (weighted average correlation coefficients = 0.50, except for the Prosocial scale), and the 5-factor structural validity. There was limited support for discriminant validity. Sensitivity was below 70% and specificity above 70% in most studies that examined this. Internal consistency of the total difficulty scale was good (weighted average Cronbach's alpha parents' and teachers' version 0.79 and 0.82) but weaker for other subscales (weighted average parents' and teachers' range 0.49-0.69 and 0.69-0.83). Inter-rater reliability between parents was moderate (correlation coefficients range 0.42-0.64) and between teachers strong (range 0.59-0.81). Cross-informant consistency was weak to moderate (weighted average correlation coefficients range 0.25-0.45). Test-retest reliability was mostly inadequate. In conclusion, the lack of evidence for cultural validity, criterion validity and test-retest reliability should be addressed given wide-spread implementation of the tool in routine clinical practice. The moderate level of consistency between different informants indicate that an assessment of a pre-schooler should not rely on a single informant.

Previous research suggests that adult perceptions of children's social competence may vary depending on the socialization goals in a given cultural context. There is also ample evidence of cultural differences in values concerning emotional display, with East Asian collectivistic contexts favoring restraint and Western individualistic contexts favoring open expression of internal states. The present study examined an individualistic versus collectivistic comparison in the links between children's emotional expressivity and teacher evaluations of their social competence. A sample of 127 Korean, Asian American (AA) and European American (EA) preschoolers participated in emotion eliciting tasks and were rated by their teachers on three dimensions of social competence (peer acceptance, prosocial behavior, and antisocial behavior). Moderation analyses revealed that for Korean children, sadness and happiness expressivity were associated with higher antisocial behavior scores, but these associations were reversed or not significant for EAs. For AA children, anger display was associated with lower ratings of peer acceptance and prosocial behavior, but this link did not hold for their EA counterparts. Overall, there was some support for the hypotheses that expressivity was related to lower teacher perceptions of child social competence for a collectivistic group (AA and Korean) but not for an individualistic group (EA). Thus, these findings indicate cultural group differences in teacher perceptions and values of children's emotion expressivity.

Sharing is an important indicator of internalised prosocial values. We examined predictors of sharing of 302 preschoolers with their younger siblings in a one-year longitudinal study. Sharing was observed during different home visits, once with father and once with mother. We examined the following predictors: both children's externalising behaviour, observed parental sensitivity, and situational factors. Preschoolers' sharing was stable and increased with age. Preschoolers shared more when sharing was preceded by a structured interaction with a parent compared to free play with an unfamiliar adult. At age 4 they shared more in fathers' presence than in mothers' presence. Neither parental sensitivity nor child behaviour were related to sharing. These findings demonstrate stability and the importance of situational factors in the development of prosocial behaviour.

Although it is hypothesized that children with different insecure attachment patterns may experience a variety of peer difficulties, the question has been investigated almost exclusively for externalizing and internalizing behaviors with peers. The purpose of this study was to investigate how each of the insecure attachment patterns is related to other features of peer relationships using data from the NICHD SECC (N = 1,140 families). Secure children were rated by mothers and teachers as less excluded by peers than avoidant and disorganized children, although the latter was only significant for boys. No behaviors were uniquely associated with ambivalent children. Avoidant children were rated high by mothers and teachers on asocial behavior, and lowest by teachers on relational aggression. Disorganized children were rated low by mothers on prosocial behavior and high on peer victimization as reported by mothers and teachers. Teachers rated disorganized children as showing higher levels of relational aggression than securely- and ambivalently-attached children. The pattern of findings revealed mixed evidence for the specificity hypothesis.

This study examined longitudinal relations between early measures of prosocial action in infancy as well as cognitive and social-cognitive abilities, and the sharing behaviour of preschool children. The results reveal relations between delay-of-gratification at 24 months and inhibitory control at 30 months, and children's sharing at 5 years. Moreover, the analyses showed specific relations between distress understanding at 24 months and preschool children's sharing with friends, and a relation between goal encoding at 7 months and sharing with a disliked other at 5 years. Yet, there were no relations between early measures of prosociality in infancy and preschool children's sharing. The results support the view that inhibitory control competencies and social-cognitive abilities play an important role in the early development of prosocial action.

This study examined whether children understand that people selectively conceal or express emotion depending upon the context. We prepared two contexts for a verbal display task for 70 first-graders, 80 third-graders, 64 fifth-graders, and 71 adults. In both contexts, protagonists had negative feelings because of the behavior of the other character. In the prosocial context, children were instructed that the protagonist wished to spare the other character's feelings. In contrast, in the real-emotion context, children were told that the protagonist was fed up with the other character's behavior. Participants were asked to imagine what the protagonists would say. Adults selected utterances with positive or neutral emotion in the prosocial context but chose utterances with negative emotion in the real-emotion context, whereas first-graders selected utterances with negative emotion in both contexts. In the prosocial context, the proportion of utterances with negative emotion decreased from first-graders to adults, whereas in the real-emotion context the proportion was U-shaped, decreasing from first- to third-graders and increasing from fifth-graders to adults. Further, performance on both contexts was associated with second-order false beliefs as well as second-order intention understanding. These results indicate that children begin to understand that people selectively conceal or express emotion depending upon context after 8 to 9 years. This ability is also related to second-order theory of mind.

This study examines community service effects on adolescents' prosocial behaviors as mediated through experiences made during service. Based on theoretical assumptions by Youniss and Yates, we suggest that personal agency experiences and being confronted with situations that can challenge the own world views (ideology experiences) serve as mediators. The data were collected in a two-wave longitudinal study surveying 2,408 German adolescents aged between 14 and 15 years. Based on "true intraindividual change models," the results support the expected mediation of service effects on prosocial behaviors through agency, but not ideology experiences. The findings suggest that community service affects prosocial behaviors through a behavioral pathway.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a pilot school-based intervention called CEPIDEA, designed to promote prosocial behavior in early adolescence. The study took place in a middle school located in a small city near Rome. The intervention group included 151 students (52.3% males; M[subscript age] = 12.4), and the control group 173 students (50.3% females; M[subscript age] = 13.0). Both groups were assessed at three time points, each 6 months apart. A Latent Growth Curve analysis revealed that the intervention group, compared to the control group, showed an increase of helping behavior along with a decrease of physical and verbal aggression across time. Current results also showed that the increase of helping behavior mediated the decline of verbal aggression in adolescents who had attended the intervention. Participants of CEPIDEA also attained higher grades than the control group at the end of middle school. Overall, findings suggest that promoting prosocial behavior may serve to counteract aggressive conduct and enhance academic achievement during adolescence.

This study examined the social functioning of bistrategic youths (i.e., those who employ both aggressive and prosocial behavior) in order to further understand their social competence in peer social networks. Within our sample of 318 fifth-grade participants recruited from an urban school district in the northeastern US, bistrategic preadolescents were identified, along with aggressives, prosocials, typicals, and noncontrollers. Bistrategic youths were found to hold the highest individual status and group status among all five subtypes within the network. Bistrategic youths and other active controller youths (i.e., prosocials and aggressives) were more likely to associate with peers of the same subtype in social groups. In addition, bistrategics who associated with same subtype (i.e., homogenous) peers held elevated group status, whereas bistrategics who associated with non-homogenous peers held heightened individual status. Further, results illustrate how bistrategics selectively target highly popular peers as victims of social aggression. Findings extend previous research by demonstrating the social success of bistrategic youths based on their high individual and group status, and by illuminating their strategic employment of different forms of aggression towards peers of different popularity status.

This study examined emotion understanding and reconciliation in 47 (24 girls) 4-6-year-old preschool children. Participants first completed emotion recognition tasks and then answered questions regarding reconciliation tendencies and affective perspective-taking in a series of overt and relational aggressive conflict scenarios. Children's teachers reported their overt aggression, relational aggression, and prosocial behaviors in daily life. The results indicated that children's emotion recognition ability was associated with their reconciliation tendency in both types of conflict scenarios. Furthermore, children's affective perspective-taking in conflicts was associated with their reconciliation tendencies in the overt aggression conflict scenarios, but not in the relational aggression conflict scenarios. Additionally, we found that children's affective perspective-taking in overt aggression conflict scenarios was associated with their daily prosocial behaviors. The results suggest that the ability of detecting and recognizing others' emotions may facilitate conflict reconciliation and positive peer interactions.

This study examined adolescent coercive and prosocial resource control strategies in relation to various indices of peer-reported behaviors and peer regard ("N" = 384; 12-14 years). Coercive control was uniquely positively related to physical and relational aggression and peer disliking, and negatively to prosocial behaviors when controlling for prosocial control, which, in turn, was uniquely negatively related to physical aggression and social withdrawal, and positively to prosocial behaviors, peer liking, and popularity. Findings from person-centered analyses augmented these findings, indicating that bi-strategic, coercive, prosocial, typical, and non-controllers exhibit divergent patterns of social adjustment among peers. Implications for the study of adolescent social adjustment are discussed, including increased understanding of adolescent resource control and aggression among peers at school.

This study examined whether hours of parental employment were associated with child behaviors via parenting practices. The sample included 2,271 Australian children aged 4-5 years at baseline. Two-wave panel mediation models tested whether parenting practices that were warm, hostile, or characterized by inductive reasoning linked parent's hours of paid employment with their child's behavior at age 6-7 years. There were significant indirect effects linking mother employment to child behavior. No paid employment and full-time work hours were associated with more behavioral problems in children through less-warm parenting practices; few hours or long hours were associated with improved behavioral outcomes through less-hostile parenting practices. These findings may have implications for developing policies to enable parents to balance work and family demands. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

The present study aimed to investigate cultural construction of children's perceptions of popularity determinants using a cross-cultural approach. This study examined 327 Chinese and 312 American fifth-graders' perceptions of what individual characteristics and peer relationships would make a peer popular. Consistent with cultural emphases, Chinese children primarily endorsed prosocial behaviors and academic competence and perceived opposite gender interactions unfavorably. In contrast, American children endorsed more social connections, appearance and opposite gender interactions. Compared with American children, Chinese children perceived antisocial behaviors more unfavorably. For both cultural groups, children's popularity status and behavioral characteristics, as measured by peer nominations, related to their perceptions of popularity determinants. Discussions regarding cultural implications of these findings are provided. (Contains 3 tables.)

By integrating the life history theory of attachment with resource control theory, the current study examines the hypothesis that insecure attachment styles reorganized in middle childhood are alternative adaptive strategies used to prepare for upcoming competition with the peer group. A sample of 654 children in the second through seventh grades in Shanghai, China, participated in this study. The children reported attachment relationships with their mother and the use of resource control strategies in the peer group. Boys had higher avoidant attachment scores than girls, whereas girls had higher ambivalent attachment scores than boys. Moreover, avoidant attachment was positively associated with the use of coercive strategies to control resources. Ambivalent attachment was associated with the use of both coercive and prosocial strategies to control resources. A number of other gender and developmental differences were also observed. The implications for the adaptiveness of insecure attachment in middle childhood are discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Developmental scholars assert that parents are important in fostering prosocial behaviors in adolescents, but longitudinal investigations on this topic are limited. Participants consisted of 372 boys and 358 girls with a mean age of 10.84 years (SD = 1.57) at Wave 1 from a mostly middle class community in Spain. Across three successive years, participants completed measures of fathers' and mothers' warmth and strict control, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, and self- and peer-reported prosocial behaviors. Results showed that parental warmth, sympathy, and prosocial moral reasoning were predictive of prosocial behaviors. Further analyses showed bidirectional effects such that early prosocial behaviors predicted later parenting and adolescents' prosociality. Findings lend support to cognitive-developmental and moral internalization models of prosocial development. (Contains 1 table and 2 figures.)

The aim of this study was to examine the antecedents of cross-racial/ethnic friendships and same-racial/ethnic friendships. The sample consisted of 444 (161 African American, 108 European American, 100 Asian American, and 75 Latino) children who were in the fourth grade from 39 classrooms in 10 public elementary schools. Results of Mixed Linear Models demonstrated that social preference was associated with relative increases in same-racial/ethnic friendships; and leadership skills and the inhibition of relational aggression were related to relative increases in cross-racial/ethnic friendships. Further, social preference weakened and leadership skills reinforced the stability of cross-racial/ethnic friendships. Developmental processes, involving social preference, social behavior, classroom diversity, and diverse friendships were discussed. (Contains 4 tables.)

Canadian data based on maternal reports for a nationally representative sample of 4,521 4-5-year-olds were used to examine associations among child care, family factors, and behaviors in preschool-aged children. Linear regressions testing for direct and moderated associations indicated that regulated home-based care was associated with less physical aggression and less prosocial behavior while high process quality in home-based care was associated with greater prosocial behavior. Among children in home-based settings, being in at least one additional current child care arrangement was linked with greater physical aggression, and low child care stability was linked to greater hyperactivity-inattention, internalizing behavior, and prosocial behaviors. For family factors, parenting behaviors and maternal depression were associated with greater behavioral problems while low household income was linked with greater hyperactivity-inattention among children in home-based care. There was a significant interaction between "process" quality and household income for physical aggression and internalizing behavior and between "structure" quality and parenting consistency for prosocial behavior for children in home-based care. Results suggest that child care matters for preschool behavioral outcomes, even after controlling for socio-demographic factors. High quality care appears particularly important for children in home-based care from low-income families so issues around child care quality and regulation should be considered. Findings also underscore the importance of family factors on young children's behaviors and show that child care and family influences work together to impact child outcomes. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.)

This study examined how children's aggression and prosocial behavior are related to the preference and popularity of their best friends. Participants were 1,953 fourth-graders (52.2% boys). Measures included peer nominations of friendship, peer status, overt and relational aggression, and prosocial behavior. A total of 334 reciprocal same-sex best friend dyads were identified. The Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (Kashy & Kenny, 1999) showed that best friends' peer status significantly predicted children's behavior. For boys, best friends' preference was negatively associated with overt aggression, while best friends' popularity was positively associated with overt aggression. For girls, best friends' popularity was positively related to both relational aggression and prosocial behavior. The model also revealed high similarity between friends in both preference and popularity. This study highlighted the distinction between two dimensions of peer status in the study of friendship and peer influence in middle childhood. It also demonstrated how individual, dyad, and group characteristics can be integrated in the study of children's social relationships. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Using social network analysis, we investigated the characteristics of social networks composed of positive relationships (positive network: PN) and negative relationships (negative network: NN) in classrooms of Japanese 3- and 4-year-olds. Analysis of "density" showed that PNs were denser than NNs among 4-year-olds but that this was not the case among 3-year-olds. The difference between the probability of dyads of girls forming cliques, between PNs and NNs, was larger than that for dyads of boys or mixed-sex dyads. Four-year-olds formed cliques more often in PNs than in NNs, compared to 3-year-olds. This study showed that both sex combination of dyads and age affect the quantified properties of social networks among preschoolers. (Contains 4 figures, 3 tables and 2 footnotes.)