Young children share more under time pressure than after a delay.

Adults under time pressure share with others generously, but with more time they act more selfishly. In the current study, we investigated whether young children already operate in this same way, and, if so, whether this changes over the preschool and early school age years. We tested 144 children in three age groups (3-, 5-, and 7-year olds) in a one-shot dictator game: Children were given nine stickers and had the possibility to share stickers with another child who was absent. Children in the Time Pressure condition were instructed to share quickly, whereas children in the Delay condition were instructed to take time and consider their decision carefully. Across ages, children in the Time Pressure condition shared significantly more stickers than children in the Delay condition. Moreover, the longer children waited, the less they shared. Thus, children, like adults, are more prosocial when acting spontaneously than after considering their decision more carefully.

Behavioral observation of prosocial behavior and social initiative is related to preschoolers' psychopathological symptoms.

Current research on preschool-age psychopathology suggests specific impairments in the two domains of social competence-prosocial behavior and social initiative-in children with externalizing and internalizing symptoms. While behavioral observation methods have been largely neglected in the past, they may extend the predominating questionnaire-based assessment as they allow for a precise and objective assessment of children's social behavior. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether prosocial behavior and social initiative measured in a limited resource task are related to externalizing and internalizing symptoms in a preschool-age community sample (N = 117, M = 4.67 years, SD = 2.75 months, females = 57). Externalizing and internalizing symptoms were rated by teachers (n = 109) and parents (n = 77) using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and by children using the Berkeley Puppet Interview (n = 97). Reduced prosocial actions were related to children's higher ratings of externalizing symptoms, while reduced social initiative actions were related to parents' higher ratings of internalizing symptoms. Prosocial behavior in the behavioral task was a marginally significant positive predictor of internalizing symptoms from children's perspective. These results highlight the value of behavioral observation measures and contribute to our understanding of interpersonal deficits already related to psychopathology at preschool age.

The Perspective Matters: A Multi-informant Study on the Relationship Between Social-Emotional Competence and Preschoolers' Externalizing and Internalizing Symptoms.

Recent research demands a multi-informant and multi-factorial assessment of preschool-age psychopathology. Based on a tripartite model, we tested the relationship between emotional and social competence and their contribution to externalizing and internalizing symptoms in a preschool-age community sample (N = 117, M = 4.67 years, SD = 2.75 months). We assessed teachers' (N = 109) and parents' (N = 77) perspective using the Strengths-and-Difficulties-Questionnaire and children's perspective using the Berkeley-Puppet-Interview and a standardized emotional-competence-test (MeKKi). We found externalizing symptoms being negatively related to prosocial behavior in teachers' and parents' reports and positively related to social initiative in teachers' reports. In teachers' reports only, a mediation effect of emotional competence via social competence on externalizing symptoms was shown. Children, but not caregivers, reported internalizing symptoms being positively related to prosocial behavior. These results highlight the importance of multiple informants and especially of children's self-perception in preschool-age psychopathology.

Social competence and psychopathology in early childhood: a systematic review.

The acquisition of social competence, such as showing prosocial behaviour (fulfilling others' needs) and social initiative (fulfilling own needs), constitutes one major developmental task in childhood and adolescence. Previous research suggests that in middle childhood, impaired social competences are related to childhood psychopathology, such as externalizing and internalizing disorders. As the period of preschool age is a particularly important time for both the development of social competence and early psychopathological symptoms, we conducted a systematic review to investigate the role of social competence in relation to early childhood psychopathology. Twenty-one clinical as well as subclinical studies published prior to September 2016 were included in a qualitative analysis of the relation between prosocial behaviour, social initiative, and early externalizing and internalizing symptoms in preschool age children (age 3-6). Effect sizes for each study were calculated if required information was available. Our review suggests that from early on in childhood development, externalizing symptoms are accompanied by prosocial behaviour deficits such as lower levels of helping or cooperating, whereas internalizing symptoms may be accompanied by either deficient or excessive levels of prosocial behaviour. Exhibiting social initiative such as initiating contact with others or communicating one's own needs seems to be impaired in children with internalizing symptoms. Implications for current theory and future research are discussed.

What Is a Group? Young Children's Perceptions of Different Types of Groups and Group Entitativity.

To date, developmental research on groups has focused mainly on in-group biases and intergroup relations. However, little is known about children's general understanding of social groups and their perceptions of different forms of group. In this study, 5- to 6-year-old children were asked to evaluate prototypes of four key types of groups: an intimacy group (friends), a task group (people who are collaborating), a social category (people who look alike), and a loose association (people who coincidently meet at a tram stop). In line with previous work with adults, the vast majority of children perceived the intimacy group, task group, and social category, but not the loose association, to possess entitativity, that is, to be a 'real group.' In addition, children evaluated group member properties, social relations, and social obligations differently in each type of group, demonstrating that young children are able to distinguish between different types of in-group relations. The origins of the general group typology used by adults thus appear early in development. These findings contribute to our knowledge about children's intuitive understanding of groups and group members' behavior.

The effects of collaboration and minimal-group membership on children's prosocial behavior, liking, affiliation, and trust.

Recent theoretical work has highlighted potential links between interpersonal collaboration and group membership in the evolution of human sociality. Here we compared the effects of collaboration and minimal-group membership on young children's prosocial behavior (i.e., helping and resource allocation), liking, affiliation, and trust. In a design that matched as closely as possible these two ways of connecting with others, we showed that 5-year-olds' behavior was affected similarly by collaboration and minimal-group membership; both increased children's preference for their partners on multiple dimensions and produced overall effects of a similar magnitude. In contrast, 3.5-year-olds did not have a strong preference for either collaborators or minimal in-group members. Thus, both collaboration and minimal-group membership are similarly effective in their influence on children's prosocial behavior and social preferences.

Young children show the bystander effect in helping situations.

Much research in social psychology has shown that otherwise helpful people often fail to help when bystanders are present. Research in developmental psychology has shown that even very young children help and that the presence of others can actually increase helping in some cases. In the current study, in contrast, 5-year-old children helped an experimenter at very high levels when they were alone but helped significantly less often in the presence of bystanders who were potentially available to help. In another condition designed to elucidate the mechanism underlying the effect, children's helping was not reduced when bystanders were present but confined behind a barrier and thus unable to help (a condition that has not been run in previous studies with adults). Young children thus show the bystander effect, and it is due not to social referencing or shyness to act in front of others but, rather, to a sense of a diffusion of responsibility.