Parenting and prosocial behaviors: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

Ascertaining whether and the extent to which different aspects of parenting are associated with prosocial behaviors could inform parenting programs in cultivating healthy development. Multilevel meta-analyses (k = 124) involving children and adolescents were conducted to examine associations between parenting and prosocial behaviors while accounting for demographic and study characteristics. Authoritative parenting (r = .174, p < .001) was associated positively whereas authoritarian parenting (r = −.107, p < .001) was associated negatively with prosocial behaviors. These associations remained robust across infancy, childhood, and adolescence in both individualistic and collectivistic cultures. These associations also were invariant across child and parent gender. Moderating effects relevant to the type of prosocial behaviors under examination were identified. Authoritative parenting was associated positively with general, public, emotional, anonymous, dire, compliant, and other specific types of prosocial behaviors (e.g., sharing), but associated negatively with altruistic prosocial behaviors. Authoritarian parenting was associated negatively with general and altruistic prosocial behaviors, but not other specific types. Moderating effects relevant to study design and informant of parenting were found. No moderating effects were identified for the informant and target of prosocial behaviors. Associations of permissive (r = −.096, p < .01) and neglecting parenting (r = −.054, p = .543) remain unclear due to insufficient number of studies and publication biases. Implications for theories, research, and practice are discussed.

Parenting and prosocial behaviors in Nicaraguan adolescents: The roles of prosocial moral reasoning and familism

“…One possibility is that supportive parenting may not be enough by itself to predict Nicaraguan adolescents' prosocial behaviors through these hypothesized mediators. This is consistent with the conclusions of a recent meta-analytic review that showed that warm, supportive, and responsive parenting practices were not strongly linked to several forms of prosocial behaviors, and some studies yielded nonsignificant links (Wong et al, 2020). In future research, it might be important to consider interactions between supportive and strict parenting in predicting Nicaraguan adolescents' prosocial behaviors because these parenting practices accompany each other and are seen as relatively normative in Latinx cultures (Halgunseth et al, 2006).…”

“…Moreover, scholars have noted the positive social development consequences of parents who are moderately demanding (Grusec & Goodnow, 1994;Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Nonetheless, the complex pattern of relations between both supportive and strict parenting practices and specific forms of prosocial behaviors could help explain why sometimes parenting is weakly or nonsignificantly related to prosocial behaviors in prior studies (see Wong et al, 2020). Future research is warranted to further investigate the parenting correlates of specific forms of prosocial behaviors and in studies of native-residing Latin American parents and adolescents.…”

Autonomy-related Parenting Profiles and their Effects on Adolescents’ Academic and Psychological Development: A Longitudinal Person-oriented Analysis

“…Psychological controlling practices include withdrawing love, inducing guilt, shaming, and invalidating the child's perspective (Barber et al, 2005). Previous studies have consistently shown that parental psychological control is related to lower academic achievement, more externalizing and internalizing symptoms, and fewer prosocial behaviors (e.g., Pinquart, 2017;Wong et al, 2021). Lastly, parental conditional regard (PCR) is the practice through which parents show love and appreciation when children fulfill their parental expectations (Assor et al, 2014).…”

Religiosity as a moderator of the links between parental psychological control and children's prosociality

“…This association is unexpected, as prior work typically found either positive associations or no associations between parental warmth and children's prosociality (Hastings et al, 2015). Because warmth is one component of a permissive parenting style (together with little and inconsistent limit setting; Baumrind, 1971), one possibility is that for some mothers, warmth may be accompanied by indulgence, with this permissive style linked in turn to lower prosociality (Wong et al, 2021). We therefore included both permissive parenting and authoritative parenting (which combines warmth with consistent, effective limit setting) as control variables in the next two studies.…”