Brief report: Patterns of prosocial behaviors in middle childhood predicting peer relations during early adolescence

Abstract

Introduction: Early adolescence is a developmental period in which peer victimization, bullying, relational aggression, and social exclusion are particularly prominent. As these behaviors have long-term implications for children, in this study, we investigated early variations of prosocial behaviors as one of the critical precedents that shape youth's subsequent peer relational outcomes. Specifically, we identified different profiles of prosocial behaviors in middle childhood (Grade 4) and related these profiles to peer relationships in early adolescence (Grade 6). Method: Using longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 914; 52% girls), a three-step latent profile analysis was conducted on Grade 4 prosocial behaviors, which were then related to Grade 6 teacher-and student-rated peer relationships (e.g., relational aggression). Results: Four patterns of prosocial behaviors emerged: low prosocial (18%), high prosocial (67%), primarily friendly (8%), and primarily kind (7%). These four patterns of prosocial behaviors were differentially related to later problematic peer relationships: Low prosocial youth demonstrated the most problematic peer relationships (Mdiff = 0.36-0.93, all p < .001). Primarily friendly (but not kind) youth displayed more general and relational aggression (Mdiff = 0.22, SE = 0.07, p = .002; and Mdiff = 0.18, SE = 0.06, p = .006, respectively). Conclusion: Both low prosocial and primarily friendly youth are at risk for displaying peer-related problems; interventions that build prosocial behaviors in youth with a low prosocial or primarily friendly profile may help prevent problematic peer relationships at early adolescence.Early adolescence is a developmental period in which peer victimization, bullying, relational aggression, and social exclusion are particularly prominent (Hanish & Guerra, 2004;Karriker-Jaffe, Foshee, Ennett, & Suchindran, 2008). When tracing the roots of early adolescent problematic peer relationships for prevention purposes, middle childhood prosocial behaviors have been identified to be one of the critical precedents that shape youth's subsequent social developmental outcomes (Eisenberg, Spinrad, & Knafo-Noam, 2015, pp. 1-47). To better understand these processes and to improve prevention focused interventions, the current study examines children's prosocial behaviors-defined as actions and voluntary behaviors geared toward benefiting another (Eisenberg. et al., 2015;Hastings, Zahn-Waxler, Robinson, Usher, & Bridges, 2000)-either as being protective or a risk for problematic peer relationships during early adolescence.Children who have tendencies to engage in prosocial behaviors are shown to have a variety of competencies that reduce social

The Role of Organized Activities in Supporting Youth Moral and Civic Character Development: A Review of the Literature

“…Among the 44 civic studies, the majority of studies examined relations between activities and character development during the middle adolescent to late adolescent and adulthood years with only a single study that examined these relations during (late) childhood (5th grade) to the early adolescent years (Zarrett et al 2009). More research is needed to examine the nature of activity-character development processes earlier in childhood, as early exposure is likely to make a difference (Ma et al 2020;Simpkins et al 2020) and can inform ways to optimize on early initiatives during childhood (Astuto and Ruck 2010).…”

Self-Esteem Moderates the Effect of Compromising Thinking on Forgiveness Among Chinese Early Adolescents

“…That is, Toussaint's study investigated participants aged from 18 to over 65 years, whereas this study focused on early adolescence aged 10-15 years. As earlier, turning from late childhood to early adolescence, interpersonal conflicts become more frequent and intense (Karimova, 2015;Ma et al, 2019). Thus, early adolescents seem to show a slight decline in decisional and emotional forgiveness, although they may be becoming psychologically mature.…”

“…Early adolescence is a developmental period in which social relationships become increasingly important and complex (Parker et al, 2006), and interpersonal problems become frequent and intense (Karimova, 2015;Ma et al, 2019). A critical element in assisting in maintaining, developing, and re-establishing interpersonal relationships is forgiveness, which facilitates individual prosocial development, especially for adolescents (McCullough, 2000;Karremans et al, 2011).…”

Situationally Selective Activation of Moral Disengagement Mechanisms in School Bullying: A Repeated Within-Subjects Experimental Study

“…If students are bullying someone whom they actually like and perceive as kind to everyone, they are likely to be less inclined to dehumanize and blame the victim than in the three bullying conditions above. The victim cannot simply be stripped of his or her human qualities and equal value, reduced to a negative label, or blamed but is perceived as deserving to be treated well and is at a lower risk of victimization (Babarro et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2019;Ma et al, 2020). In fact, bullying someone who is liked, friendly, and kind to others is so obviously wrong and unjustifiable that, for most children and adolescents, engaging in such behavior would inevitably create cognitive dissonance, resulting in aversive arousal (Festinger, 1962;McGrath, 2017), feelings of guilt and self-condemnation (Bandura, 1999(Bandura, , 2016, and moral distress (cf., Brüggemann et al, 2019;Gini et al, 2020).…”

“…These findings suggest that students high in likability or sociometric popularity (well-liked by their peers and high in prosocial behavior; see Closson and Hymel, 2016;van den Broek et al, 2016) are at lower risk of being targets of dehumanization and victim blaming from their peers, and it seems more difficult for students to morally justify bullying directed toward a well-liked and friendly peer. These findings can be compared with studies showing that students who are more well-liked and prosocial are less likely to be peer victimized (de Bruyn et al, 2010;van der Ploeg et al, 2015;Pouwels et al, 2016;Babarro et al, 2017;Ma et al, 2020).…”