Helping out while staying in: Prosocial responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has confronted communities and individuals with a host of new challenges to overcome (e.g., limited food availability, transitioning to remote learning), but alongside those challenges it has presented new opportunities to engage in prosocial behaviors, or behaviors intended to benefit others (e.g., social distancing, wearing and donating masks; Batson & Powell, 2004). This symposium brings together four research teams evaluating whether and how children living through the COVID-19 pandemic have engaged prosocially with their families and communities.
The first paper demonstrates that early adolescents with strong attachment bonds experienced less-severe increases in mental health problems in response to the pandemic. In turn, youth with lower-than-expected distress responses to the pandemic also exhibited greater prosocial behavior over and above prior levels. The second paper examines adolescent experiences as both the actor and the recipient of prosocial behavior during the first few months of the stay-at-home order, and documents negative associations with depression and positive associations with feelings of belonging. The third paper capitalizes on a large sample of Boy Scouts to explore the impact of a sense of purpose on youth’s prosocial engagement and psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic. The fourth paper introduces a global perspective with a qualitative study documenting youth’s varied motivations for becoming prosocially engaged with their communities during the government lockdown in Singapore.
Prosocial behavior is of paramount importance to containing the COVID-19 pandemic. Together, these four papers help us to understand factors that promote or thwart these actions in children and adolescents.

Sub Unit

• Solicited Content: COVID-19 Related

Chair

• Brianne Coulombe, University of South Carolina Aiken

Individual Presentations

• Prosocial responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of attachment and psychopathology - Presenting Author: Brianne Coulombe, University of South Carolina Aiken; Non-Presenting Author: Tuppett M. Yates, University of California - Riverside

• Giving vs Receiving COVID-19 Assistance: Associations between Adolescents’ Prosocial Experiences and Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic - Presenting Author: Lauren Alvis, The Hackett Center for Mental Health; Non-Presenting Author: Robyn Douglas, University of Houston; Non-Presenting Author: Natalie Shook, University of Connecticut; Non-Presenting Author: Benjamin Oosterhoff, West Virginia University

• “I wish I could change the whole thing so it never happened”: Youth purpose, depression, anxiety, and prosocial behavior during Covid-19 - Presenting Author: Milira Cox, Montclair State University; Non-Presenting Author: Tara Bennett, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine; Non-Presenting Author: Lauren Alvis, The Hackett Center for Mental Health; Non-Presenting Author: Alysandra Zhang, Columbia University; Non-Presenting Author: Jennifer Brown Urban, Montclair State University; Non-Presenting Author: Miriam R Linver, Montclair State University

• Youth civic engagement under COVID-19 lockdown: Mobilization, action, and future orientation in Singapore - Presenting Author: Kwan Jin Yao, University of Denver