Young in Times of COVID-19: A Cross-National Study on Prosocial Behavior in Late Adolescence

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Moral Development

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has a tremendous impact on young people’s lives and prosocial behavior. Many youngsters show prosocial behavior: they adhere to regulations to combat COVID-19 and are involved in initiatives to help others who suffer from consequences of COVID-19, even when this exposes themselves to risk. Yet, there is resistance against COVID-19 measures as well; some adolescents ignore social distance to join a party or are reluctant to engage in social initiatives. As the success of combatting the COVID-19 pandemic and of limiting its societal consequences is dependent on the cooperation of all citizens, it is of utmost importance to disentangle the factors that explain individual differences in prosociality during the crisis both across and within countries. The aim of the current study is to investigate among youth in late adolescence from at least nine countries across the world how we can explain, at individual and at country level , differences in the extent to which adolescents show two aspects of prosociality during the COVID-19 pandemic: 1) adherence to national procedures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (adherence), and 2) helpful behaviors towards strangers (helping).

Method
An online survey was conducted among adolescents in 14 countries. This study uses data from at least N = 4209 participants (64.50% female; Mage = 21.65, SD = 2.12) from 9 countries that finished the data collection by July 31, 2020. Data from 5 other countries will be added if samples are complete by October 1, 2020. Online questionnaires were administered on prosocial behavior towards strangers (Padilla-Walker et al., 2018), sympathy and perspective taking (Davis, 1983), collectivistic- individualistic orientation (Triandis & Gelfland, 1998), mental health (Goldberg & Williams, 1988), support from family, friends (Russell & Cutrona, 1984), local support (Huppert et al., 2009), social identification (Doosje et al., 1998), and questions on exposure to negative consequences of COVID- 19, and adherence to COVID-regulations.

Preliminary Results
Mean levels of adherence (F (8,4207) = 48.832, p < .001) and helping (F (8,4207) = 71.900, p < .001) differed significantly across countries. Regarding adherence, adolescents from The Netherlands showed lowest levels, and adolescents from Argentina, Ireland, Turkey and US showed highest levels. Regarding helping, Chinese, Turkish and US adolescents showed highest levels, and French, German and Italian adolescents showed lowest levels (see Table 1). Preliminary results of path analyses in MPlus suggest that sex, sympathy/perspective taking and social identification predicted adherence, whereas helping was predicted by sympathy/perspective taking, collectivistic values, support (negatively), COVID-19 burden (positively) and social identification (see Table 2). The final paper will include further analyses to test for interactions with country level factors, including mortality due to COVID-19, the country approach to combat COVID-19 and other predictors (e.g. collectivism, social identification).

Discussion
Results of this international study provide insight into how national circumstances are related to prosocial attitudes and behaviors in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, and which factors explain individual differences in prosociality during the crisis across and within countries.

Authors

• Jolien van der Graaff, Utrecht University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura M Padilla-Walker, Brigham Young University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Marije Maria Emma van Meegen, Universiteit Utrecht
  Presenting Author

• Gustavo Carlo, University of California, Irvine
  Non-Presenting Author

• Susan Branje, Utrecht University
  Non-Presenting Author