Competence, reticence, and helping by children and adolescents.

Abstract

The relation between age and helping was examined in an experimental study in which children directly observed an emergency and had the opportunity to intervene. A second study was then conducted, in which an emergency was clearly staged, in order to elicit comments about factors that may inhibit helping. Results of Study 1 were consistent with earlier findings of a curvilinear relationship between age and helping among children and early adolescents, with fourth and tenth graders helping significantly more than first and seventh graders. Significantly more help was given to a toddler than to an age peer and to a person whose injury appeared serious enough so that he or she could not get up unaided. Results obtained from Study 2 suggested that helping by younger children was inhibited by fear of possible inadequacy, and helping by adolescents was inhibited by fear of disapproval and/or sensitivity to the possible embarrassment felt by potential recipients. Reticence was expressed least where the potential recipient was a toddler.Children express concern for others beginning at a very early age (Rheingold, Hay, & West, 1976;Strayer, Wareing, & Rushton, 1979;Waxier, Yarrow, & King, 1979). Furthermore, as the child grows older, there are likely to be concomitant increases in altruistic moral judgment (Eisenberg, 1982;Bar-Tal, Raviv, & Shavit, 1981), in the ability to empathize with others (Hoffman, 1975), in the value placed on altruistic behavior (Rushton, 1976), and in both perceived and actual competence (Midlarsky, 1984; Peterson, 1983a, b). All of these, in turn, are apparently related to altruism-denned here as self-sacrifice motivated by the desire to help another (Bryan & London, 1970;Midlarsky, 1984).The prediction that altruism should increase with age has primarily been investigated in regard to two types of behavior-We thank Susan Midlarsky, whose intuition about factors impeding interpersonal helping motivated this investigation, as well as Shirley Christian and Sarah Cilano, for their help during the study. We also gratefully acknowledge the help of Boaz Kahana, for his critical reading of an earlier version of the article, and the anonymous reviewers, for their incisive and constructive comments.Requests for reprints should be sent to Elizabeth

Toward a Piagetian explanation of the development of prosocial behaviour in children: The force of negational thinking

“…Existing data, however, cast some doubts on the hypothesis that younger children donate less than older ones simply because the object to be donated is of more value to them. For instance, Midlarsky & Bryan (1967) found the expected age effects on children's donations of candies, even when both groups verbalized the same degree of liking for these goods.…”

“…Most studies relating age to generosity (e.g. Bar-Tal, Raviv & Leiser, 1980;Chapman, Zahn-Waxler, Cooperman & Iannotti, 1987;Midlarsky & Hannah, 1985;Simons & Zumpf, 1986) have documented age trends in children's prosocial behaviour, at least during the latter half of the first decade of life. In other words, there is considerable evidence that 'altruism increases with age' (Krebs, 1970, p. 290), with 'older children sharing more often and more generously than younger ones' (Underwood & Moore, 1982, p. 27).…”

An Exploratory Study of Altruism in Greek Children: Relations with Empathy, Resilience and Classroom Climate

“…Helping behavior tends to augment around age eight for children, only to drop later and rise again during childhood. Midlarsky and Hannah (1985) interviewed children and adolescents and found that younger children often hold back from offering help, only because they feel awkward or unable to help. On the other hand, when pre-adolescents and adolescents refrain from offering help, they do so out of fear that their offer will be rejected, or that the person at the receiving end will feel awkward.…”

Förderung sozialer Kompetenzen im Unterricht

“…Jugendalter im Vergleich zum Schulkindalter berichtet, finden sich in anderen Untersuchungen keine Altersunterschiede (Midlarsky & Hannah, 1985). Allerdings gibt Petermann (1995) Veränderungen postuliert (Pekrun, 1985a).…”

“…Zuwachs hin (Berndt, 1985;Midlarsky & Hannah, 1985;Pakaslathi, Karjalainen & Keltikangas-Järvinen, 2002). Auch Schmidt-Denter (1996) Hilfsbereitschaft (vgl.…”