Are a Child's Autistic Traits, Behavioural Difficulties, Prosocial Behaviour and Temperament Predictors of Parental Self-Efficacy and Satisfaction? A Study on Parents of Autistic and Neurotypical Children Aged 7-11 Years.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the significance of the severity of autistic traits, behavioural difficulties, prosocial behaviour and temperamental characteristics in children for parental self-efficacy and parental satisfaction in two groups of parents: parents of autistic children, and parents of neurotypical children. Data come from 145 parents of autistic children and 239 parents of neurotypical children. Using hierarchical multiple regression analyses, the analysis explored the role of child characteristics in prediction of parental self-efficacy and parental satisfaction. The regression model tested explained 21% variation in parental self-efficacy and 27% variation in parental satisfaction in parents of autistic children and 3% of variation of results with respect to parental self-efficacy and 17% variation in parental satisfaction in parents of neurotypical children. In both groups, parental self-efficacy and parental satisfaction were negatively correlated with such child characteristics as severity of behavioural difficulties, severity of autistic traits and emotionality as also positively related to the child's prosocial behaviour. These findings may suggest that particularly useful mental health prevention programs for parents should combine two elements: developing parents' abilities of effectively coping with children's behavioural difficulties and working on attribution processes and negative convictions about parenthood.

Little evidence that androstadienone affects social distance-dependent prosocial behaviour: a pre-registered study.

In navigating the complexities of social life, humans have evolved to interpret invisible odorous chemical cues, with profound behavioural impacts often unbeknown to the conscious mind. The manifestation of this in humans is evident in the scent of androstadienone (androsta-4,16-dien-3-one), an odorous compound which is considered a putative human pheromone. The current study investigated the effect of androstadienone on social distance-dependent prosocial behaviour measured by a social discounting task, in which participants chose between selfish and generous options. Based on our pre-registration, we predicted a sex-specific effect, with males exposed to androstadienone exhibiting increased generosity, while females would choose more selfishly. Employing a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subject design, we recruited 170 participants who were randomly assigned to either the androstadienone or control condition. Olfactory stimuli were administered while participants completed the social discounting task. Inconsistent with our hypothesis, inhaling androstadienone did not impact social distance-dependent prosocial behaviour. This finding was supported by multiple estimates of prosociality, including model-free, model-based and maximum likelihood estimation. Further analyses indicated that androstadienone administration did not influence perceived social distance or bias participants towards being generous or selfish. Thus, our empirical findings provide no support for the hypothesis that androstadienone modulates generosity.

The reciprocal relationship between prosocial behaviour and self-perceived physical health: The role of positive affect and openness to experience.

The present study used a cross-lagged design to explore the bidirectional relationship between adolescents' prosocial behaviour and self-perceived physical health and to explore the mediating role of positive affect and the moderating role of openness to experience. A total of 1525 middle school students (Mage = 12.41, 47% male) in northern China were surveyed for 3 years. The results showed the following: (1) prosocial behaviour at T1 positively predicted self-perceived physical health at T3; and vice versa; and (2) this observed relation between prosocial behaviour and self-perceived physical health was explained by positive affect; (3) the mediating role of positive affect on the path from prosocial behaviour at T1 to self-perceived physical health at T3 was observed only among adolescents with high openness traits. This finding verified the protective effect of prosocial behaviour on the healthy development of the actor.

The association between parental warmth and children's prosocial behaviour: A moderated mediation analysis.

Prosocial behaviour is a bedrock of humane societies. Although previous studies have shown that parental style is an important contributing factor for children's prosocial behaviour, the psychological mechanism underlying this association in specific cultural background remains unclear. Based on the ecological systems theory, this study sought to explore the influence of parental warmth on children's prosocial behaviour, and the mediating effect of self-efficacy, as well as the moderating role of teachers' incentive evaluation in the link between self-efficacy and children's prosocial behaviour. This cross-sectional, survey-based study collected data from parents and teachers of 414 Chinese preschoolers (5-6 years old). Parents of these children finished questionnaires on the Chinese version of the short-form Egna minnen av. Barndoms uppfostran (s-EMBU-C), Child Behaviour Scale (CBS), and the revised General Self-efficacy Scale (GSES), while Incentive evaluation questionnaire was finished by their teachers. Results indicated that children who experience high parental warmth were more likely to act prosocially (b = 0.61, p < 0.001) and the association between parental warmth and prosocial behaviour was partially mediated by self-efficacy (indirect effect = 0.25, 95 % CI = [0.19, 0.32]). Besides, teachers' incentive evaluation moderated the link between self-efficacy and children's prosocial behaviour (b = 0.24, p < 0.001). Specifically, the effect of self-efficacy on prosocial behaviour was stronger for high teachers' incentive evaluation children than those with low teachers' incentive evaluation. These findings extend the existing understanding of the mechanism concerning the influence of parental warmth on prosocial behaviour in Chinese settings. The results revealed that interventions that could improve children's self-efficacy would be effective in accelerating their prosocial behaviour and schools played a crucial role in working with families to increase their self-efficacy at a young age. It should be noted that this study focused only on Chinese children of 5-6 years old, and the cross-sectional design means that the possibility of bidirectional effects could not be ruled out.

Do They Know What They Are Doing? Cognitive Aspects of Rescue Behaviour Directed by Workers of the Red Wood Ant Formica polyctena to Nestmate Victims Entrapped in Artificial Snares.

Ant rescue behaviour belongs to the most interesting subcategories of prosocial and altruistic behaviour encountered in the animal world. Several studies suggested that ants are able to identify what exactly restrains the movements of another individual and to direct their rescue behaviour precisely to that object. To shed more light on the question of how precise the identification of the source of restraint of another ant is, we investigated rescue behaviour of red wood ant Formica polyctena workers, using a new version of an artificial snare bioassay in which a nestmate victim bore two wire loops on its body, one (acting as a snare) placed on its petiole and an additional one on its leg. The tested ants did not preferentially direct their rescue behaviour towards the snare. Moreover, the overall strategy adopted by the most active rescuers was not limited to precisely targeted rescue attempts directed towards the snare, but consisted of frequent switching between various subcategories of rescue behaviour. These findings highlight the importance of precise identification of cognitive processes and overall behavioural strategies for better understanding of causal factors underlying animal helping behaviour in light of new facts discovered by testing of various successive research hypotheses.

Turning pain into strength: prosocial behaviours in coping with trauma.

Background: Various coping strategies have been shown to alleviate the negative effects of trauma, yet the significance of prosocial behaviour in this realm has been notably underexplored. The present study explored the hypothesis that engaging in prosocial behaviour mitigates the impacts of trauma by promoting a sense of competence and relatedness, post-traumatic growth (PTG), and reconstruction of meaning.Methods: Three consecutive studies were conducted with college students to compare differences in consequence of prosocial behaviours between a trauma group and a control group. Study 1 (N = 96) used self-reported experiences of traumatic vs non-traumatic events; Study 2 (N = 43) used exposure vs. no exposure to video of an earthquake; Study 3 (N = 20) used a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a prosocial-themed intervention vs. no intervention. Outcomes in all studies were assessed by self-report questionnaires.Results: Trauma damaged participants' sense of competence and meaningfulness. Prosocial behaviour relieved the impact of trauma on meaning, specifically manifested in the individuals' sense of meaningfulness and their search for meaning. Group interventions with a prosocial theme (based on effect size results) reduced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and enhanced PTG in victims. The promoting effect on PTG persisted a month later, and its enhancing effect on meaning manifested with a delay.Conclusion: Prosocial behaviour can potentially serve as a beneficial strategy for individuals coping with trauma because it helps enhance meaning and promotes PTG in victims. This conclusion is supported by laboratory experiments and a tentative small-scale intervention study, which provide an innovative perspective for future trauma interventions.

Prosocial behaviour can potentially serve as a beneficial strategy for individuals coping with trauma.Prosocial behaviour relieved the impact of trauma on meaning.Prosocial-themed intervention reduced PTSD and enhanced PTG in victims (based on effect size results).

Interpersonal helping in the workplace: social expectation predicts anticipated guilt and intention to help a coworker.

Promoting interpersonal helping among coworkers is an important aim for any organisation that cares about employee well-being. Drawing on guilt aversion hypothesis, this research focuses on the power of social expectations in promoting prosocial behaviour among employees and investigates the role of anticipated guilt for failing to meet coworkers' expectations. In two preregistered studies, the effect of beneficiary expectation on benefactors' anticipated guilt and intention to help was investigated. In Study 1, Japanese participants (n = 284) recalled a situation when they helped a coworker spontaneously, and evaluated perceived beneficiary expectation to receive help, as well as anticipated guilt for not helping. Beneficiary expectation positively predicted anticipated guilt, and the effect was stronger when the beneficiary was a same-status colleague, and when interpersonal helping frequency in the organisation was low. Study 2 (n = 499) employed vignettes and manipulated beneficiary expectation. A mediational model revealed that beneficiary expectation leads to more anticipated guilt for not helping, which, in turn, increases employees' intention to help. Together, these studies show that employees are sensitive to their coworkers' expectations, and guilt-averse; therefore, interpersonal helping among employees may be promoted by establishing legitimate expectations of prosociality in the workplace.

Examining the relationship between meeting 24-hour movement behaviour guidelines and mental health in Chinese preschool children.

Background: Limited research has explored the relationship between adhering to 24-h Movement Behaviour guidelines and mental health in Chinese preschool children. The objectives of this study encompassed two primary goals: (1) to investigate the adherence of preschool children in China to the 24-h Movement Behaviour guidelines; and (2) to analyze the relationship between fulfilling various combinations of these guidelines and mental health, identifying the most advantageous combination. Methods: Utilizing a convenience sampling approach, this study included 205 preschool children (117 boys and 88 girls, average age 4.8 ± 0.51 years) from five kindergartens in Hengyang, Hunan Province. The physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour of preschool children were objectively assessed using waist-worn accelerometers, while sleep duration and screen time were reported by the children's parents. To evaluate mental health, the parent version of the internationally validated Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was employed, which measures externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and prosocial behaviour. Employing Mplus 8.0 for Structural Equation Modeling analysis, while controlling for demographic variables, the study explored the connection between preschool children's mental health and their adherence to the 24-h Movement Behaviour guidelines. Results: Worryingly, merely 14.6% of preschoolers met the recommended guidelines for all three aspects (PA, sleep duration, and screen time). Positive correlations were identified between meeting PA guidelines and displaying prosocial behaviour (ß = 0.184; p < 0.05), while screen time adherence exhibited a negative correlation with externalizing problems (ß = -0.207; p < 0.05). Similarly, there was a negative association between sleep duration adherence and externalizing problems (ß = -0.191; p < 0.05). Meeting all three recommended guidelines was notably linked to enhanced prosocial behaviour (ß = 0.464; p < 0.05), while following the screen time and sleep duration guidelines was negatively associated with externalizing problems (ß = -0.246; p < 0.05). Conclusion: This study underscores the limited adherence of Chinese preschoolers to the comprehensive 24-h Movement Behaviour guidelines. Noteworthy findings include the positive influence of PA on prosocial behaviour, alongside the significant roles that sleep duration and screen time play in mitigating externalizing problems within this age group. Alignment with the 24-h Movement Behaviour guidelines is associated with more favorable mental health indicators in preschoolers.

Mental health in athletes: Does authentic leadership matter?

Recent research has attested to the prevalence of mental health issues in sport, and the need to identify factors that could promote athletes' mental health. In this study, we investigated: (a) whether authentic leadership is associated with athletes' mental health directly and indirectly via psychological capital and prosocial and antisocial behaviour experienced from one's teammates; and (b) whether the hypothesized model testing these relationships is the same in higher versus lower competitive level athletes. We examined two dimensions of mental health, namely positive mental health and mental illness. A total of 751 athletes (Mage = 22.92, SD = 8.53; 294 female) from a range of sports completed a multi-section questionnaire administered via an online survey. Path analysis showed that authentic leadership was positively related to positive mental health via psychological capital and prosocial behaviour and negatively linked to mental illness via psychological capital and antisocial behaviour. The effects of authentic leadership on positive mental health via prosocial teammate behaviour and subsequently psychological capital, and on mental illness via prosocial teammate behaviour, were stronger in higher compared to lower competitive level athletes. The findings suggest that by adopting an authentic leadership style coaches could strengthen athletes' positive mental health and protect them from mental illness. This may happen by increasing athletes' psychological capital and prosocial behaviour within the team and decreasing antisocial behaviour within the team.

I help, therefore, I am? - A registered report on longitudinal inter-relations of the three-dimensional moral self-concept and prosocial behaviours in preschool children.

Children's moral self-concept (MSC) has been proposed to relate to prosocial behaviour. However, systematic assessments of their inter-relations are scarce. Therefore, this longitudinal study investigated the development, structure and inter-relation of prosocial behaviours and the MSC in childhood, using three measurement points at ages 4, 5 and 6 years. We assessed children's MSC and helping, sharing and comforting behaviours in a laboratory setting. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed a three-dimensional MSC structure at 5 and 6 years, but not at 4 years. There was inconsistent stability across time points regarding prosocial behaviour and MSC. For the comforting domain, but not the other domains, cross-lagged relations between self-concept and behaviour were present. Moreover, helping behaviour and self-concept were inter-related at 6 years. Results provide support for reciprocal associations between MSC and prosocial behaviour, albeit only in the comforting domain. They highlight the importance of distinguishing between types of prosocial behaviour and corresponding dimensions of the self-concept, as different developmental trajectories and associations emerge.

The proximate regulation of prosocial behaviour: towards a conceptual framework for comparative research.

Humans and many other animal species act in ways that benefit others. Such prosocial behaviour has been studied extensively across a range of disciplines over the last decades, but findings to date have led to conflicting conclusions about prosociality across and even within species. Here, we present a conceptual framework to study the proximate regulation of prosocial behaviour in humans, non-human primates and potentially other animals. We build on psychological definitions of prosociality and spell out three key features that need to be in place for behaviour to count as prosocial: benefitting others, intentionality, and voluntariness. We then apply this framework to review observational and experimental studies on sharing behaviour and targeted helping in human children and non-human primates. We show that behaviours that are usually subsumed under the same terminology (e.g. helping) can differ substantially across and within species and that some of them do not fulfil our criteria for prosociality. Our framework allows for precise mapping of prosocial behaviours when retrospectively evaluating studies and offers guidelines for future comparative work.

Prosocial behaviours and emotional intelligence as factors associated with healthy lifestyles and violence in adolescents.

Adolescence is a stage of life characterised by vulnerability, which shapes young people's trajectories and potentially influences their behaviour. In this crucial period, the promotion of prosocial behaviours and the development of emotional intelligence are understood as key factors influencing adolescents' psychological and personal well-being. The general objective of this study was to find out the relationship between these two variables - prosocial behaviours and emotional intelligence - and their correlation with the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle and another fundamental aspect such as violence among young people in the academic context. A total of 743 secondary school students participated in this research with a descriptive-cross-sectional design. This study used several instruments, including an ad hoc questionnaire to assess socio-demographic aspects and school violence, the Prosocial Behaviour Questionnaire (PBQ), the TMMS-24 for the assessment of Emotional Intelligence, the Healthy Lifestyles Questionnaire (HLQ-II) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS). The results highlighted a convincing link between the display of prosocial behaviours and emotional intelligence with various dimensions of healthy living such as healthy diet or respect for mealtimes. In particular, the research revealed a pronounced correlation between adolescents who showed greater emotional repair and respect and their lower involvement in school violence and substance use. In addition, the likelihood of having a healthy life was found to be linked to variables such as being male, respect, social relationships and emotional repair. In contrast, the likelihood of having an excessive consumption of certain harmful substances such as alcohol or tobacco was found to be linked to age, empathy and emotional clarity. These results highlight the crucial role that prosocial behaviours and emotional intelligence play in shaping adolescents' lives. In conclusion, the need to promote such variables as prosocial behaviours and emotional intelligence in adolescent students in order to promote healthy lifestyles and reduce school violence and substance use in this age group is discussed.

Reduced prosocial motivation and effort in adolescents with conduct problems and callous-unemotional traits.

BACKGROUND: Prosocial behaviours - acts that benefit others - are of crucial importance for many species including humans. However, adolescents with conduct problems (CP), unlike their typically developing (TD) peers, demonstrate markedly reduced engagement in prosocial behaviours. This pattern is particularly pronounced in adolescents with CP and high levels of callous-unemotional traits (CP/HCU) who are at increased risk of developing psychopathy in adulthood. While a substantial amount of research has investigated the cognitive-affective mechanisms thought to underlie antisocial behaviour, much less is known about the mechanisms that could explain reduced prosocial behaviours in adolescents with CP. METHODS: Here we examined the willingness to exert effort to benefit oneself (self) and another person (other, prosocial condition) in children with CP/HCU, CP and lower levels of CU traits (CP/LCU) and their TD peers. The task captured both prosocial choices, and actual effort exerted following prosocial choices, in adolescent boys aged 11-16 (27 CP/HCU; 34 CP/LCU; 33 TD). We used computational modelling to reveal the mechanistic processes involved when choosing prosocial acts. RESULTS: We found that both CP/HCU and CP/LCU groups were more averse to initiating effortful prosocial acts than TD adolescents - both at a cognitive and at a behavioural level. Strikingly, even if they chose to initiate a prosocial act, the CP/HCU group exerted less effort following this prosocial choice than other groups. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that reduced exertion of effort to benefit others may be an important factor that differentiates adolescents with CP/HCU from their peers with CP/LCU. They offer new insights into what might drive low prosocial behaviour in adolescents with CP, including vulnerabilities that may particularly characterise those with high levels of CU traits.

Linking Perfectionism with Moral Behaviors in Sport: The Mediating Role of Burnout and Moral Disengagement.

Purpose: Research has identified a range of intrapersonal variables associated with moral behaviors in sport. However, research investigating how perfectionism and burnout are associated with prosocial and antisocial behavior toward teammates and opponents in sport has received scant attention. In the present study, we address this issue by examining whether perfectionism is associated with prosocial and antisocial behavior in sport directly and indirectly via burnout and moral disengagement. Method: A total of 312 team sport players completed validated measures for each variable. Results: Path analyses revealed that perfectionistic concerns had a negative relationship with prosocial behavior toward teammates and an indirect positive association with antisocial behavior toward both teammates and opponents via being positively associated with burnout, which in turn, was positively associated with moral disengagement. In contrast, perfectionistic strivings had a positive association with prosocial behavior toward teammates, and an indirect positive association with antisocial behavior toward teammates and opponents via moral disengagement. Conclusion: Our findings offer new insights into how perfectionism and burnout are associated with prosocial and antisocial behavior in sport, as well as highlight the need to consider perfectionistic tendencies and approaches to help reduce burnout and moral disengagement in the regulation of antisocial behavior in sport.

Acute stress reduces effortful prosocial behaviour.

Acute stress can change our cognition and emotions, but what specific consequences this has for human prosocial behaviour is unclear. Previous studies have mainly investigated prosociality with financial transfers in economic games and produced conflicting results. Yet a core feature of many types of prosocial behaviour is that they are effortful. We therefore examined how acute stress changes our willingness to exert effort that benefits others. Healthy male participants - half of whom were put under acute stress - made decisions whether to exert physical effort to gain money for themselves or another person. With this design, we could independently assess the effects of acute stress on prosocial, compared to self-benefitting, effortful behaviour. Compared to controls (n = 45), participants in the stress group (n = 46) chose to exert effort more often for self- than for other-benefitting rewards at a low level of effort. Additionally, the adverse effects of stress on prosocial effort were particularly pronounced in more selfish participants. Neuroimaging combined with computational modelling revealed a putative neural mechanism underlying these effects: more stressed participants showed increased activation to subjective value in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula when they themselves could benefit from their exerted effort relative to when someone else could. By using an effort-based task that better approximates real-life prosocial behaviour and incorporating trait differences in prosocial tendencies, our study provides important insights into how acute stress affects prosociality and its associated neural mechanisms.

The Medusa effect: a registered replication report of Will, Merritt, Jenkins and Kingstone (2021).

Will et al.'s (2021 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2106640118 (doi:10.1073/pnas.2106640118)) found the Medusa effect, which refers to the tendency that people evaluate a 'person in picture' more mindful than a 'person in picture of a picture'. The present study tried to directly replicate the Experiments 2 and 5 of Will et al.'s (2021), to examine the reliability, validity and generalization of the Medusa effect, as well as its effect on prosocial behaviour. We used the same stimuli and methodology as the original research, but recruited participants in Japan with a larger sample size (N = 1387 in total) as a registered report. In our two replication experiments, we again found that pictures with lower levels of abstraction (L1) were perceived to convey more mind and lead to higher levels of prosocial behaviour, successfully replicating the original findings. The results of the present study suggested the high reproducibility and generalizability of the Medusa effect. Pre-registered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/xj46z (date of in-principle acceptance: 9 February 2023).

I help, therefore, I am?-longitudinal interrelations of the three-dimensional moral self-concept and prosocial behaviours in 4-6-year-old children.

Children's moral self-concept (MSC) has been proposed to relate to prosocial behaviour. However, systematic assessments of their interrelations are scarce. The current study examines the early development, structure, stability and interrelation of three key prosocial behaviours and the corresponding dimensions of the moral self-concept. To this end, we use a longitudinal approach with three measurement points during the preschool years at ages 4, 5 and 6 years. We assess three prosocial dimensions of children's MSC through a puppet-interview. In addition, behavioural measures of children's helping, sharing and comforting were administered in a laboratory setting. By examining the longitudinal associations between MSC and prosocial behaviours, this study will provide valuable insights into the complex nature of prosocial development in early childhood.

Autistic adults show enhanced generosity to socially distant others.

LAY ABSTRACT: Autistic people show differences in their social behaviour. But how autism affects decisions to share resources, an important part of cooperation, was previously unclear. In our study, participants made decisions about how to share money with different people, including people they felt close to, such as a friend, and people they felt less close to, such as a stranger. We found that compared to a group of non-autistic participants, autistic adults shared more money overall and this was driven by greater generosity to strangers. The results suggest that autistic adults were more generous because they made fair decisions (an equal split of the money) more consistently regardless of how close they felt to the person they were sharing with. By showing that autistic adults display greater generosity, our results could help to change public perceptions of autism and potentially improve opportunities for autistic people.

Developmental links between well-being, self-concept and prosocial behaviour in early primary school.

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 behaviour. SAMPLE(S): We tracked a sample of 206 children across the transition from the first (T1) to the second (T2) year of primary school (T1 child Mage = 5.3, SD = .46, 54.3% girls) and gathered ratings of well-being, prosocial behaviour and academic self-concept at both timepoints. METHODS: We used cross-lagged analyses to investigate developmental links between these three constructs. RESULTS: Parent and child reports of children's well-being showed similar temporal stability and converged over time, such that informants' reports showed a modest but significant correlation at T2. Girls reported greater well-being than boys at both timepoints and received higher parental ratings of well-being than boys at T2. For both girls and boys, associations between the constructs were asymmetric: early well-being predicted later self-concept and prosocial behaviour, but the reciprocal associations were not significant. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the validity of young children's self-reported well-being, highlight the early onset of gender differences in school well-being and demonstrate that early well-being heralds later prosocial behaviour and positive academic self-concepts.

The Role of Prosocial Behaviour, Personality and General Mental Health in Predicting Emoji Use and Preference.

Emojis are prevalent in text-based communication, but the factors that influence our use and preference for emojis remains unclear. This study investigated how emoji use and preference could be explained by three factors; mental health, personality and prosocial behaviour. A questionnaire consisting of five measures was completed by 222 participants and both Pearson correlations and multiple regressions were conducted on the data. The results showed prosocial behaviour significantly related to frequency, attitudes and motivations towards emoji use as well as to positive emoji preference. Agreeableness related to the frequency of emoji use. Extraversion related to both positive and negative emoji preference while conscientiousness and emotional stability significantly related to negative emoji preference only. General mental health significantly related to negative emoji preference. The regressions found all of the factors identified in the correlations predicted emoji use and preference with the exception of extraversion. Further research is needed to explore how the impact of the emotions depicted by emojis on these factors and to investigate how emojis are used by people with specific mental health conditions.