Poster #131 - Egalitarian gender attitudes predict children’s prosocial behavior toward outgroup members

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

Prosocial behavior refers to voluntary behavior that benefits others (Eisenberg et al., 2015). Researchers have argued that it is important to differentiate various targets of children’s prosocial behavior (e.g., family, friends, and peers; Eisenberg et al., 2016; Padilla-Walker & Christensen, 2011). Due to the increasing diversity and prevalent prejudice in our society, it is important to understand children’s prosocial behavior toward people who are different from themselves. We examined the relations of school age children’s gender-related attitudes and other-gender contact to their prosocial behavior toward outgroup members.
Gender is one of the first social categories children learn, and from very early on, children form gender-related attitudes ranging from rigidity (i.e., stereotyping attitudes) to flexibility (i.e., egalitarian attitudes; Maccoby, 1990). Because stereotyping attitudes are found to be related to children’s gender-related ingroup bias and prejudice, such relation might extend to children’s intergroup behaviors such as prosocial behavior toward outgroup members. Further, we examined the role of other-gender friends in prosocial behavior toward outgroup members because intergroup contact has been found to be positive related with intergroup attitudes (Pettigrew & Troop, 2006). We hypothesized that egalitarian gender attitudes, as well as having other-gender friends, would be positively related to children’s prosocial behavior toward outgroups (e.g., different gender, race, country of origin). Additionally, because there are differences in boys’ and girls’ behavioral norms (Rose & Rudolph, 2006), the relation from children’s attitudes to their behavior toward outgroup members might differ for boys and girls. Thus, we examined the moderating role of gender.
Participants in the study were 102 (53.9% male) school age children (Mage = 7.01 years, SD = .93) from the Southwest. All participants were non-Hispanic White because of the larger project’s focus on intergroup behavior. Children reported their gender attitudes (Preschool Occupation, Activity, and Trait Scale; Liben & Bigler, 2002). Primary caregiving parents reported on the gender of the children’s four closest friends and their prosocial behavior toward outgroup members (adapted from Padilla-Walker & Christensen, 2011).
First, we tested a path model with the overall sample (fit was perfect), and the results indicated that egalitarian attitudes, but not other-gender friends, were positively related to prosocial behavior toward outgroup members. We then conducted multiple group analysis (child gender as the grouping variable) to examine whether the relations differed by gender. The fit was improved when the path from egalitarian attitudes to prosocial behavior was allowed to vary across the groups (see Figure1). Specifically, the positive relation of egalitarian attitudes to prosocial behavior toward outgroup members was found for girls, but not boys. The findings indicate that boys’ attitudes about gender may not motivate behaviors directly. Egalitarian attitudes might be related to boys’ prosocial intentions, but because boys’ behaviors receive more peer sanctions, their prosocial behavior, particularly toward outgroups, may be dependent on context. Further, it is possible that friendships with other-gender peers are related to prosocial behavior toward other-gender peers, rather than broad categories of outgroup as we assessed. Findings shed light on the importance of children’s attitudes to understand intergroup behavior.

Authors

• Sonya Xinyue Xiao, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Tracy Spinrad, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nancy Eisenberg, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Diana E. Gal, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rebecca H. Berger, The Center for Early Education and Intervention, University of Maryland, College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jingyi Xu, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author