3-196 - New Directions in the Study of the Socio-Cultural Roots of Early Helping

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Humans begin to help others early in the lifespan. Infant and children’s prosocial behavior appears and develops in a rich social and cultural context in the home and community. New evidence suggests that socio-cultural pratices influence the early emergence of helping, and its ongoing development. This international paper symposium will explore the socio-cultural processes by which family members scaffold helping behaviors in young children across several contexts and cultures. The talks will also seek to demonstrate how research on socio-cultural aspects of prosocial behavior complements laboratory research and points to novel theoretical and empirical directions.

The first talk will explore the relation of maternal socialization behavior to children’s helping through studies in Germany, India, and Brazil.

The second talk will present data from a large longitudinal home observation study evaluating key hypotheses about the emergence of infant helping and its social context in everyday life.

The third talk will present data from a study exploring children’s helping in the home in routine and self-care contexts, and relations between young children’s prosocial behaviors in the home setting and lab-based helping behaviors.

The fourth talk will examine how children's prosocial helping and its socialization are culturally patterned in everyday family life. The findings demonstrate and address why, in a European American community, voluntary help appears early but then wanes, whereas in a Mexican American community, voluntary help emerges early and later expands.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chairs

• Stuart Ian Hammond, University of Ottawa

• Audun Dahl, University of California, Santa Cruz

Individual Presentations

• Social and Cultural Influences on Early Helping - Presenting Author: Joscha Kärtner, University of Münster

• A Longitudinal Naturalistic Investigation of Infant Helping in Everyday Life - Presenting Author: Audun Dahl, University of California, Santa Cruz; Gabriella F. Freda, University of California, Santa Cruz

• “She Loves Opening Doors”: The Relation Between Participatory Helping and Problem-Based Helping - Presenting Author: Stuart Ian Hammond, University of Ottawa; Humeyra Nur Celebi, University of Ottawa; Mariam Ismail, University of Ottawa; Khaled Kchouk, University of Ottawa; Lydia Muyingo, University of Ottawa; Chloe Elizabeth St. Onge-Shank, University of Ottawa

• Divergent Trajectories of Children’s Prosocial Helping across Cultural Communities - Presenting Author: Andrew D Coppens, University of New Hampshire; Barbara Rogoff, University of California, Santa Cruz