Can well-documented gender differences in evaluations of prosocial versus antisocial actions found in childhood and adulthood be traced to sex differences in basic sociomoral preferences in infancy? We provide an answer to this question by meta-analyzing sex differences in preference for prosocial over antisocial agents in a set of 53 samples of…

The self-oriented and other-oriented empathy dimensions may have different relationships with playfulness. However, a scarcity of research exists on the association between empathy and playfulness. The present research contained two studies. Parents of 386 preschoolers (M[subscript age] = 4.89, SD[subscript age] = 0.79) attended Study 1, and…

We examined the extent to which children's emotion-sharing relationships were unique from friendships. We also examined the association between emotional experience and emotion sharing as well as the association between emotion sharing and prosocial behavior. Participants were 456 children (M[subscript age] = 10.6 years) from the Midwestern United…

Research Findings: Empathy plays an important role in children's early social-emotional development. However, there are not many instruments available for measuring the different aspects/levels of empathy in preschool children. Moreover, few studies examined the validity of the existing measures for empathy in Chinese children. The present study…

The present study investigated the longitudinal associations of self-control and parental involvement with prosociality and internalizing problems from early to mid-to-late adolescence, within a risk and resilience and a developmental cascade framework. We used a panel design (i.e., four measurement times at 2-year intervals from 2008 onwards) to…

Preschoolers' prosocial behaviours support healthy interpersonal relationships as a component of their social adjustment process. Although several studies have found links between parental marital characteristics and preschoolers' prosocial behaviours, these conclusions were divisive. Therefore, a meta-analysis was conducted to clarify the…

Both parasympathetic nervous system regulation and receipt of social support from close relationships contribute to prosocial development, although few studies have examined their combined influences in adolescence and particularly within racially and ethnically minoritized populations. In this longitudinal study of 229 U.S. Mexican-origin…

In order to comfort others, children need to exhibit Theory of Mind (ToM) skills. The goal of the present study was to investigate the role of ToM in association with children's spontaneous comforting behaviour in a laboratory task. Forty-seven children between 26 and 57 months of age completed three ToM tasks: diverse desires, diverse beliefs and…

Research Findings: Prosocial behavior in early childhood can be assessed by various informants and methodologies, but the information each provides may differ in meaningful ways. The present study measured and compared young children's (N = 486; age: M = 48.51 months, SD = 8.22) prosocial behavior based on parent reports, teacher reports, and…

We explored the potential of using a peer relations approach for researching children's citizenship in elementary classrooms. Children express or enact citizenship through their behavior toward classmates and the relationships they engage in (i.e., lived citizenship). These behaviors and relationships can be more or less in line with goals for…

This study explored students' prosocial efficacy and reading outcomes in a culturally relevant summer reading program for underrepresented students. From a positive developmental approach, the reading program focuses on topics rooted in multicultural education, with books organized according to themes such as making a difference for oneself, one's…

Background: Well-being is a key aspect of children's education, yet measurement issues have limited studies in early primary school. Aims: The current 12-month longitudinal study assesses the temporal stability of child- and parent-reported school well-being and examines developmental links with academic self-concept and parent-rated prosocial…

Objective: There are multiple risk factors, such as individual features, parenting behaviours, and peer influences associated with the development of conduct problems. The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire-Child Form (APQ-CF) is a commonly used instrument to measure parenting behaviours. The study aimed to examine the factor structure of the…

This study investigated the extent to which adolescents' personal normative attitudes (also referred to as personal norms) and perceived peer norms regarding bullying, sexual harassment, and bystander intervention predicted each step of the five-step bystander intervention model (i.e., Notice, Interpret, Accept Responsibility, Know how to Help,…

This article examines reader development as a key factor in understanding the pathways through which readers connect to gender expansive books, and relates those concepts to the corpus of books available for elementary level readers. The article provides evidence for the importance of attending to both book quantity and quality, as well as…