Adolescents’ perceptions of social risk and prosocial tendencies: Developmental change and individual differences

Abstract

Many prosocial behaviors involve social risks such as speaking out against a popular opinion, bias, group norm, or authority. However, little is known about whether adolescents’ prosocial tendencies develop over time with their perceptions of social risks. This accelerated longitudinal study used within‐subject growth‐curve analyses to test the link between adolescents' prosocial tendencies and social risk perceptions. Adolescents completed self‐reports annually for 3 years (N = 893; Mage = 12.30 years, 10–14 years at Wave 1, and 10–17 years across the full study period; 50% girls, 33% White non‐Latinx, 27% Latinx, 20% African American, 20% mixed/other race). The association between social risk tolerance and prosocial tendencies changed significantly across adolescence. Specifically, for younger adolescents, more prosocial tendencies were associated significantly with less social risk tolerance, whereas for relatively older adolescents, more prosocial tendencies were associated marginally with more social risk tolerance. Additional individual differences by empathy (but not sensation seeking) emerged. These findings suggest that prosocial tendencies across adolescence may be associated with an underlying ability to tolerate social risks.

Adolescents Are More Likely to Help Others on Days They Take Risks and Crave Social Connections

“…This effect was moderated by social craving, such that only when adolescents were strongly motivated by a craving for social connection throughout the day did they show this link between risk‐taking and prosocial behavior. Our study extends prior research, which demonstrated that risk‐taking and prosocial behavior converge from early‐ to late‐adolescence (Armstrong‐Carter, Do, Duell, et al., 2021), and were positively correlated (Blankenstein et al., 2020). Specifically, our study builds on this work by revealing that risk‐taking and prosocial behavior co‐occur on a smaller time scale, within days.…”

“…Finally, our findings should be replicated in other samples to clarify generalizability across contexts, and examine individual differences by gender, age, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. For example, it is possible that risk-taking is positively related to prosocial behavior among older adolescents (around age 15-17), as prior research has suggested (Armstrong-Carter, Do, Duell, et al, 2021), but not among younger adolescents (age 14 and below). In particular, relatively older adolescents' increased perspective taking and self-regulation skills may enable them to more effectively weigh risks, make calculated choices, and engage in empathic but risky actions.…”

“…In one study, adolescents’ self‐reports of risk‐taking behaviors (e.g., staying out late and drinking alcohol) and prosocial behaviors (e.g., helping friends with emotional and instrumental tasks) were positively correlated within a single time point (Blankenstein et al., 2020). Another study found that although higher risk‐taking was associated with fewer prosocial tendencies at age 12, by mid‐adolescence around age 15, risk‐taking was associated with greater prosocial tendencies (Armstrong‐Carter, Do, Duell, et al., 2021). This initial research suggests that risk‐taking and prosocial behavior are positively correlated within years during mid‐adolescence, but it is unknown whether risk‐taking and prosocial behavior co‐occur daily.…”

“…Finally, a third alternative is that risk‐taking is not related to prosocial behavior within a given day. It is possible that risk‐taking and prosocial behavior are only related on average at the yearly level as illustrated by prior work (Armstrong‐Carter, Do, Duell, et al., 2021; Blankenstein et al., 2020), but do not co‐occur. By examining the extent to which risk‐taking and prosocial tendencies co‐occur within a given day—and controlling for between‐subject effects—researchers can clarify the temporal relationship between risk‐taking and prosocial behavior.…”

“…To answer these questions, we drew on a large, diverse sample of adolescents from a low‐income community. We focused on middle adolescence ages 14–17 (in 10th and 11th grade) based on prior research suggesting that prosocial and risky tendencies tend to converge during this age (Armstrong‐Carter, Do, Duell, et al., 2021). Adolescents provided repeated ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) and daily diary reports each day over the course of fourteen days.…”