In an increasingly diverse world, understanding young adults’ intergroup prosocial behavior toward diverse others may inform ways to reduce intergroup conflict and cultivate an equitable and ...inclusive society. The college years are often the first time that young adults begin to explore their social identities and intergroup relations independently from their parents. Thus, we focused on college students and examined social dominance orientation, social positions, prosocial obligation, and the sense of belongingness in relation to their intergroup prosocial behavior across four domains (i.e., age, gender, race/ethnicity, and department affiliation). Participants were 1163 young adults aged 18–24 years (63.2% females, 34.5% males, and 2.3% gender diverse; 50.7% White, 19.6% Latino, 25% Asian, 2.3% Black) from a large public Southwestern university. Four profiles of intergroup prosocial behavior (self-serving, altruistic, selfish, and reverse ethnic racial bias) were identified and they were differentially related to the social, cognitive, and contextual correlates we examined. Overall, findings highlighted the need to foster intergroup prosocial behavior and the benefits of intergroup prosocial behavior to young adults’ sense of belongingness.
Introduction
In a diverse society, individuals often need to make prosocial decisions toward others who vary on a range of intertwined social identities. Adolescence is a prime time to promote ...intergroup prosociality due to identity salience during this developmental stage. In this study, our goal was to develop and provide initial validation, of a novel measure on intergroup prosocial behavior considering gender and race/ethnicity.
Method
We used two independent samples of early adolescents (N1 = 118, Mage = 12.21 years, 55% boys, 59% White collected nationally in the United States.; N2 = 133, Mage = 12.77, 51.1% boys, 77% White collected locally in Arizona).
Results
Using the data from Sample 1, Exploratory Factor Analyses revealed a two‐factor solution capturing intergroup prosociality and personal distress. Confirmatory Factor Analyses with data from Sample 2 confirmed the factor structure. The reliability of intergroup prosociality was acceptable. Prosociality subscale was positively correlated with adolescents' empathy, sympathy, compliant, emotional, dire, and anonymous prosocial behaviors indicating convergent validity and negatively correlated with adolescents' public prosocial behavior indicating discriminant validity. Further, we examined whether youth engage in differential intergroup prosocial behavior using both variable‐centered and person‐centered approaches, combining data from Samples 1 and 2. While adolescents did not engage in differential intergroup prosocial behavior, Latent Profile Analyses revealed five distinct profiles of early adolescents' intergroup prosociality. Overall, this study advances research on youth's intergroup prosociality across two intersectional social identities, moving beyond the conceptualization of single social identities in intergroup research.
Background
Prior research findings are mixed regarding whether prosocial behavior is positively or negatively related to socioeconomic status and its correlates, such as economic pressure. This may ...be due to the lack of considerations for the type of prosocial behavior.
Aims
In this study, we aimed to examine how six types of prosocial behavior (i.e., public, anonymous, compliant, emotional, dire, and altruistic) are related to economic pressure among early adolescents. We hypothesized that family economic pressure would be associated with each type of prosocial behavior in differing ways.
Materials & Methods
Participants were 11–14 years old (N = 143, Mage = 12.2 years, SDage = 0.87, 63 boys, 1 trans‐identified boy, 55 girls), early adolescents and their parents. Among them, 54.6% were non‐Hispanic/Latinx (NH/L) White, 23.8% were NH/L Black, 11.2% were NH/L Asian, 2.1% were NH/L Multiracial, and 8.4% were Hispanic/Latinx. Parents reported family economic pressure and adolescents' six types of prosocial behavior.
Results
Path analysis revealed that economic pressure was negatively associated with emotional and dire prosocial behavior over and above age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Family economic pressure was unrelated to public, anonymous, compliant, and altruistic prosocial behavior.
Discussion
These findings show some support for the Family Stress Model, such that economic stress might hinder youth's prosocial development. At the same time, youth may have similar levels of certain types of prosocial behavior regardless of their family's economic pressure.
Conclusion
This research provided insight into the complex relation between economic pressure and youth's prosocial behavior which varies depending on the type of behavior.
White children's effortful control (EC), parents' implicit racial attitudes, and their interaction were examined as predictors of children's prosocial behavior toward White versus Black recipients. ...Data were collected from 171 White children (55% male, Mage = 7.13 years, SD = 0.92) and their parent in 2017. Prosocial behavior toward White peers was predicted by children's higher EC. When predicting prosocial behavior toward Black peers and prosocial disparity (the difference between White and Black recipients), parents' implicit racial attitudes moderated the relation between children's EC and children's prosocial behavior. Specifically, children's EC was positively associated with prosocial behavior toward Black peers (and negatively related to inequity in prosocial behavior) only when parents exhibited less implicit racial bias.
Generally, research on children’s anger and prosocial outcomes has been inconsistent, perhaps because researchers have overlooked nuances in children’s anger, such as whether the emotion is ...situational versus dispositional or is in response to blocked goals versus violations of moral principles (e.g., unfairness). Additionally, mixed findings may be due to potential moderators such as shyness. In this study, we investigated the unique relations of children’s (n = 192, 54.7% boys; Mage = 41.75 months) dispositional and situational anger in response to unfairness at 42 months old to their prosocial behavior toward strangers a year later. Further, we examined whether children’s shyness moderated the relations. Longitudinal models controlling for stability of the constructs showed that dispositional anger was unrelated to prosocial behavior whereas situational anger positively predicted later prosocial behavior. Further, children’s shyness moderated the relation between situational anger (but not dispositional anger) and prosocial behavior. For shy children, prosocial behavior toward strangers was low, regardless of anger; for those who were low or average in shyness, situational anger positively predicted prosocial behavior. The findings suggest that when children are not too shy to approach strangers, anger in response to unfairness may be an important precursor for later other‐oriented moral tendencies.
In a school sample of early adolescents, we expanded the view of gender typicality to include adolescents who varied in the extent of felt similarity to own- and other-gender peers, and examined how ...their felt own- and other-gender similarity, are related to depression. Further, we examined the moderating role of parental acceptance of gender atypicality. Participants were 504 ethnically/racially diverse sixth graders (Mage = 11 years, SD = 0.56, 51.6% boys) and their parents. Path analyses showed that adolescents’ felt own-gender similarity, but not felt other-gender similarity, was negatively related to depression. Further, when parental acceptance was high, adolescent depression was low, even for adolescents who had cross-gender tendencies or low own-gender tendencies. Tendencies of atypicality were only related to risk for depression when parental acceptance was low. These findings support previous research that many variations of gender typicality exist, and highlighted the importance of parental acceptance of gender atypicality.
Are Coeducational Classes Truly Coeducational? Martin, Carol Lynn; Xiao, Sonya Xinyue; Fabes, Richard A. ...
The Elementary school journal,
03/2024, Letnik:
124, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Boys and girls sit together in most classrooms, but do they interact? Based on 40-year-old evidence, coeducational classes may not be coeducational but instead segregated by gender, which may ...undermine student success. Our goal is to answer this question in today’s classrooms. We used longitudinal data to assess gender segregation in 26 classes in 3 US coeducational elementary schools over an academic year. Third- to fifth-grade students (n = 515) from diverse backgrounds were asked how often they work with (frequency) and how well they work together (quality) with each classmate. Analyses illustrated a strikingly consistent pattern: for every grade, gender, and classroom, and across both fall and spring, students reported that they interacted more frequently with and had higher-quality interactions with same- than with other-gender classmates. Given the findings, teachers should encourage mixed-gender interactions; students likely will benefit socially and academically from these efforts.
Children who try to exclude others due to their gender can be considered as “gender enforcers.” Using multiple methods (observations, interviews) and informants (children, teachers, teacher aides), ...we investigated the prevalence of gender enforcement, the characteristics of gender enforcers, and potential associations of exposure to gender enforcers. Participants were 98 (
M
age
= 49.47 months,
SD
= 11.40; 52% boys) preschoolers from a southwestern city in the United States. Results showed that both girls and boys engage in gender-enforcing behavior. Further, findings suggest that aggression and biased gender-related beliefs are associated with gender-enforcing behavior. Children who spent more time (over months) with enforcers were observed to play more with same-gender peers and to show more biased gender cognitions than were children who spent less time with enforcers. The study extends our understanding of how gender norms are enforced in early childhood, and it provides insights that may help to identify young gender enforcers. These findings have potential to inform future research and practice related to gender-based aggression in childhood.
Building upon two complimentary theoretical frameworks related to group relations (i.e., Intergroup Contact Theory and Peer Exposure), we examined how emerging adults’ friendships with men and women ...were related to their hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, and sexual objectification attitudes. Participants were 212 college students (M
age
= 20.20 years, SD = 2.08; 62% female; 58% White) from a large southwestern university. Results provided support for Intergroup Contact Theory and for a Peer Exposure effect, but only for men. Specifically, for men, having female friends was negatively associated with hostile sexism, and having male friends was positively related to hostile sexism; neither friendship type related to benevolent sexism. For women, no significant relations between friends and attitudes were found; this is likely due to the assessed attitudes being about women (their own group). The findings suggest a promising pathway to mitigate gender-based prejudice for men through cross-gender friendships.
Relations among White (non‐Latinx) children's empathy‐related responding, prosocial behaviors, and racial attitudes toward White and Black peers were examined. In 2017, 190 (54% boys) White 5‐ to ...9‐year‐old children (M = 7.09 years, SD = 0.94) watched a series of videos that depicted social rejection of either a White or Black child. Empathy‐related responses, prosocial behaviors, and racial attitudes were measured using multiple methods. Results showed that younger children showed less facial concern toward Black than White peers and greater increases with age in concern and prosocial behaviors (sharing a desirable prize) for Black, compared to White, targets. Children's facial anger increased with age for White but not Black targets. The findings can extend our understanding children's anti‐racism development.
