Diverse prosocial behavior and the correlates: Contextualized examinations from childhood to young adulthood

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Recently, researchers have argued for the importance of considering various aspects of prosocial behavior (i.e., voluntary acts that benefit others). Heeding calls for considering the contextualized experiences of individuals, in this symposium, we present recent research on the correlates of diverse prosocial behavior (i.e., different targets, and different sources) with examinations of individuals’ social positions (e.g., gender, race, SES) from childhood to young adulthood.
Paper 1 investigated the relation between out-of-school activities and prosocial development for children from underserved low-income background (majority Latinx) over five years. Findings indicated the benefits of regular attendance of afterschool programs in promoting these children’s prosocial behavior. Paper 2 focused on children’s prosocial behavior toward outgroup members (i.e., other-gender peers) with a short-term longitudinal design. Cross-gender friendships positively predicted children’s prosocial behavior toward other-gender peers for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. Further, similarity to other-gender peers predicted children’s intergroup prosocial behavior indirectly. Using dyad approaches across six years, in Paper 3, researchers examined the transactional relations among youth’s prosocial behavior, autonomy support, and emotional support from close relationships with fathers, mothers, siblings, and best friends during adolescence. Paper 4 simultaneously considered the majority/minority statuses of young adults’ gender and race. Prosocial behavior was more strongly related to belongingness for individuals with multiple minority statuses than others. Future work on how this relation may differ across diverse aspects of prosocial behavior will be discussed.
Collectively, these studies provide a platform for discussion of advances in methodology, and implications of fostering positive development in the real world.

Sub Unit

• Moral Development

Chair

• Sonya Xinyue Xiao, Northern Arizona Univeristy

Individual Presentations

• Patterns of Out-of-School Activities and Relations to Prosocial Moral Behaviors - Presenting Author: Zehra Gulseven, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Non-Presenting Author: Sandra Simpkins, University of California - Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Nicole Zarrett, University of South Carolina; Non-Presenting Author: Deborah Lowe Vandell, University of California - Irvine

• School-age Children’s Intergroup Prosocial Behavior: Longitudinal Predictions from Cross-gender Friendships and Gender Identity - Presenting Author: Sonya Xinyue Xiao, Northern Arizona Univeristy; Non-Presenting Author: Carol Lynn Martin, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Tracy L Spinrad, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Nancy Eisenberg, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Dawn DeLay, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Laura D Hanish, Arizona State University; Non-Presenting Author: Richard A Fabes, Arizona State University

• Bidirectionality in Longitudinal Associations of Adolescents’ Prosocial Behavior, Autonomy Support, and Emotional Support - Presenting Author: Marije Maria Emma van Meegen, Universiteit Utrecht; Non-Presenting Author: Jolien van der Graaff, Utrecht University; Non-Presenting Author: Gustavo Carlo, University of California, Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Wim Meeus, Utrecht University; Non-Presenting Author: Susan Branje, Utrecht University

• The Relation between Prosocial Behavior and Emerging Adults’ Belongingness Across Gender and Ethnic Racial Identities - Presenting Author: Qinxin Shi, University of Utah; Non-Presenting Author: Sonya Xinyue Xiao, Northern Arizona Univeristy; Non-Presenting Author: Jeffrey Liew, Texas A&M University - College Station