Poster #128 - Relationships between parenting and children's prosocial/lying behavior in Taiwan

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

Prosocial behaviors are acts for other’s benefits and the prosocial development has drawn attention in recent decades. Lying, on the other hand, is considered a negative behavior and it can lead to more delinquent conducts in adolescence. However, reasons for lying may change and become more complicated with age: an individual may want to lie to protect other’s interests or feelings. In a collective society like Taiwan where maintaining a strong interpersonal relationship is important, lying may be more prominent. We are therefore curious if children lie for others and if other-oriented lying is considered prosocial.
Research has shown that children’s prosocial behavior is closely related to other-oriented characteristics such as sympathy. More sympathetic or empathic children are more likely to conduct prosocial behaviors including helping, sharing, and comforting. Meanwhile, parenting practices are integral to forming a child’s behavioral repertoire. Parental behavior influences how children think and act. Therefore, in the current study, we examined if parental behavior connects to child empathy and affects their prosocial behavior and lying behavior. More specifically, we expect to find that positive parental behavior and child empathic traits have positive impact on both prosocial and other-oriented lying.
Data were collected from 321 Taiwanese 3rd through 6th graders with 177 (56%) female using a self-report questionnaire. Parental practices include both positive and negative aspects. Empathy is consisted of perspective-taking and sympathy. A list of prosocial behaviors is compiled from a previous research designed for Taiwanese children of this age range to uncover what specific prosocial behaviors they conduct. Finally, for lying, items are divided by self-oriented and other-oriented motivation. Preliminary analyses including correlations are first conducted then followed by a series of hierarchical regression analysis.
Table 1 shows the correlational coefficients between the study variables. Most correlations have shown the expected directions. Noticeably, prosocial behavior had a negative correlation with self-oriented lying but was not related to other-oriented lying. Self- and other-oriented lying were positively related. It appears that other-oriented lying was considered somewhat negative. Table 2 demonstrates the regression analysis results. Self-oriented lying was predicted by negative parenting and lesser perspective taking ability. Other-oriented lying, on the other hand, was predicted by negative parenting and sympathy but both in a positive fashion. Finally, positive parenting, perspective taking, and sympathy all positively predicted prosocial behaviors.
The discussion will focus on elaborating factors of children’s prosocial behavior and lying behavior with other-oriented motivation. In addition, the possibility of intermediating effects of sympathy and perspective-taking will also be considered. Finally, if the cultural aspect plays a role in these relations will be of interest.

Authors

• Chia-Wei Lu, Chung Cheng University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yuh-Ling Shen, Chung Cheng University
  Presenting Author