Poster #239 - Prosociality in Digital and Face-to-Face Environments: Cross-Contextual Effects Prosocial Behaviors Among Middle School Students

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Technology, Media & Child Development

Integrative Statement

Digital technologies (e.g., smartphones, social media) are ubiquitous and are the primary means of social interaction for a majority of adolescents (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). When considering interrelations between digital behaviors and face-to-face behaviors, research has primarily focused on maladaptive behaviors (e.g., digital addiction, cyberbullying), while less attention has been paid to adolescents’ prosocial interactions in both digital and school contexts. Adolescents use digital behaviors to supplement interactions that they have with their peers at school (Kowalski et al., 2014). Digital technologies enable adolescents to maintain consistent contact with their peers and have an enhanced ability to present self-representations that are more authentic (McKenna & Bargh, 2000). Adolescents are able to engage in prosocial behaviors with others and may experience positive behaviors from others on a more consistent and broader scale (Subrahmanyam & Smahel, 2011). Teachers and parents note the compounding effects of digital behaviors for face-to-face interactions (Sasson & Mesch, 2014). Thus, digital environments may work in conjunction with face-to-face environments to create self-reinforcing positive behavioral patterns.
The current study tested whether: a) digital prosocial behaviors demonstrated positive reciprocal associations with prosocial behaviors face-to-face, b) engagement in prosocial behaviors online and face-to-face predicted and are predicted by the receiving prosocial messages and behaviors from their peers online and face-to-face, and c) the degree to which adolescents’ authentic self-expression predict the degree to which they receive prosocial behaviors from others.
Data were obtained from a sample of 144 (73 female, 70 male) 7th and 8th grade students in the Eastern United States. Assessments of peer-nominated prosocial behavior face-to-face and through digital media (Wright, 2016), nominations of students who receive prosocial behaviors from others through digital technologies and face-to-face, and self-reported authentic self-expression in digital environments (Lim et al., 2015) were taken in the fall and spring.
Hierarchical regressions were used to test longitudinal reciprocal associations between prosocial behaviors, prosocial experiences, and authenticity. Face-to-face prosocial behaviors positively predicted digital prosocial behaviors = .19, p = .002). Cyberprosocial behavior positively predicted prosocial behavior face-to-face ( = .21, p = .028). Cyberposocial behaviors ( = .31, p = .036), face-to-face prosocial behaviors ( = .34, p = .005), and authenticity in digital environments ( = .14, p = .021) positively predicted the degree to with others were prosocial toward the individual digitally. Digital and face-to-face prosocial behaviors did not predict students receiving prosocial behavior face-to-face. While experiencing prosocial behavior from others face-to-face positively predicted cyberprosocial behavior ( = .39, p < .001) and face-to-face prosocial behavior ( = .53, p < .001), receiving digital prosocial messages was negatively related to cyberprosocial behaviors ( = -.23, p = .011).
Results from the current study demonstrate the reinforcing nature of prosocial behaviors enacted in both digital and face-to-face contexts. While these behaviors along with digital authenticity also elicit prosocial behaviors from peers across digital and face-to-face contexts, receiving prosocial behaviors only seems to foster the prosocial environment when occurring face-to-face and may be a liability in digital environments.

Author

• John Ranney, Gannon University
  Presenting Author