Links Between Prosocial Parenting Practices and Prosocial Behaviors: Mediating Role of Familism in Nicaraguan Adolescents

• In Event: 2-079 - Parenting in the Global South: From Theory to the Evaluation of Interventions

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Prosocial behaviors are voluntary actions aimed to benefit others (e.g., helping, sharing; Eisenberg et al., 2015). Parents socialize their children’s prosocial behavior by engaging in various types of parenting practices (Eisenberg et al., 2015). Social and material rewards, modeling, discursive communications, and inductive conversations are some of the parenting practices that positively predict prosocial behaviors (Carlo et al., 2007). Bandura (1986) suggested that using social and material rewards when children engage in desirable behaviors could foster prosocial behaviors. Similarly, parents’ use of inductive conversations about morality and discursive communication with their children can also promote children’s concerns with others (including family members) and prosocial behaviors (Carlo et al., 2007; Laible, 2004). However, there is limited research focusing on the links between parenting practices and prosocial behaviors, because most of the previous research has focused on disciplinary practices (Grusec & Goodnow, 1994; Hoffman, 2000). Furthermore, cultures have different traditions, beliefs, and values (e.g., familism) that may differentially influence parenting and prosocial behaviors (Carlo & de Guzman, 2009). However, research on parenting and prosocial behaviors in collectivist-oriented cultures is limited because most of the studies have been conducted in individualist-oriented cultures (Henrich et al., 2010; Oyserman et al., 2002). One particular important culture-related mechanism that might affect the relations between parenting and prosocial behaviors is familism (i.e., interdependence and strong connectedness to family; Knight et al., 2011).

Objective: The purpose of this study is to explore the links between parenting practices, including social and material rewards, modeling, discursive communications, and inductive conversations and six types of prosocial behavior in adolescents from rural Nicaragua. We also explored the mediating role of familism in these associations.

Study Population: Participants were 265 secondary school students (Mage=14.85 years, SD=1.33; 61.5%girls) from rural Nicaragua.

Methods: Five types of prosocial parenting practices (Carlo et al., 2007), familism (Knight et al., 2011), and six types of prosocial behaviors (Carlo & Randal, 2001) were assessed using measures completed by adolescents.

Results: Descriptive statistics and correlations among the main variables are shown in Table 1. Five different path analyses (one for each prosocial parenting practice) were conducted in Mplus version 8.0 using maximum likelihood estimation (Muthén & Muthén, 2017). All the hypothesized models fit the data well (see Figure 1 as an sample). We found several significant associations. For instance, social reward, modeling, and inductive conversations were positively and directly linked to public, emotional, compliant, and anonymous prosocial behaviors. Such parenting practices were negatively or not linked to altruistic prosocial actions. Material reward and discursive communications were differentially linked to some of the prosocial behaviors. All parenting practices were positively associated with familism. Of particular interest, familism significantly mediated the link between a) social reward and emotional prosocial behavior, b) modeling and emotional prosocial behavior, and c) inductive conversation and emotional/ altruistic prosocial behaviors. Discussion will emphasize the implications of the findings for traditional socialization models of moral development and the generalizability of such models to a collectivist-oriented culture.

Authors

• Zehra Gulseven, University of Missouri
  Presenting Author

• Gustavo Carlo, University of Missouri
  Non-Presenting Author