The Relationship of Children's Prosocial Behavior to Social Responsibility, Prosocial Reasoning, and Personality

Abstract

This study assessed the relationship of prosocial behavior to three major areas of development: personality, value, and cognition. Boys and girls (N = 150) from third, fifth, and seventh grades were administered (a) Children's Personality Questionnaire (scored for intelligence, anxiety, and extra version/introversion); (b) Prosocial Reasoning Test (scored for maturity and consistency of concepts of prosocial motivation); and (c) Social Responsibility Scale. Teachers rated children for peer-directed prosocial behavior and assertion. For all children more prosocial behavior was significantly associated with more social responsibility, and with lower anxiety; higher level prosocial concepts and greater consistency were associated with more prosocial behavior. Assertion mediated somewhat the relationship between personality and behavior, and third graders scoring high on introversion chose developmentally higher concepts. Inspection of correlations by grade yielded the pattern that for third graders, cognition, value, and personality variables interrelate to the highest degree; however, largest correlations between behavior and these variables are found in the seventh grade. Findings of greater interrelationships of behavior, personality, and value for seventh graders were explained with the use of a differentiation/integration model of development.