Being Mimicked Increases Prosocial Behavior in 18‐Month‐Old Infants

Most previous research on imitation in infancy has focused on infants' learning of instrumental actions on objects. This study focused instead on the more social side of imitation, testing whether being mimicked increases prosocial behavior in infants, as it does in adults (van Baaren, Holland, Kawakami, & van Knippenberg, 2004). Eighteen‐month‐old infants (N = 48) were either mimicked or not by an experimenter; then either that experimenter or a different adult needed help. Infants who had previously been mimicked were significantly more likely to help both adults than infants who had not been mimicked. Thus, even in infancy, mimicry has positive social consequences: It promotes a general prosocial orientation toward others.     

Five-year-old children value reasons in apologies for belief-based accidents

Accidents can be intent-based (unintended action-unintended outcome) or belief-based (intended action-unintended outcome). As compared to intent-based accidents, giving reasons is more crucial for belief-based accidents because the transgressor appears to have intentionally transgressed. In Study 1, UK-based preschoolers who were native English speakers (N = 96, 53 girls, collected 2020–2021) witnessed two intent-based or belief-based accidents; one transgressor apologized, the other apologized with a reason. Five-year-olds, but not 4-year-olds, favored the reason-giving transgressor following a belief-based accident but not an intent-based accident (where an apology sufficed). In Study 2, 5-year-olds (N = 48, 25 girls, collected 2021) distinguished between “good” and “bad” reasons for the harm caused. Thus, 5-year-old children recognize when reasons should accompany apologies and account for the quality of these reasons.     

Social and Cognitive Factors Associated With Children's Secret‐Keeping for a Parent

This study examined children's secret‐keeping for a parent and its relation to trust, theory of mind, secrecy endorsement, and executive functioning (EF). Children (N = 107) between 4 and 12 years of age participated in a procedure wherein parents broke a toy and asked children to promise secrecy. Responses to open‐ended and direct questions were examined. Overall, secret‐keeping increased with age and promising to keep the secret was related to fewer disclosures in open‐ended questioning. Children who kept the secret in direct questioning exhibited greater trust and better parental ratings of EF than children who disclosed the secret. Findings highlight the importance of both social and cognitive factors in secret‐keeping development.     

Children's Inferences About Friendship and Shared Preferences Based on Reported Information

Two experiments (total N = 195) examined third-party inferences about friendship and shared preferences from reported dyadic information. Four-year-olds (N = 48) inferred friendship between individuals based on reports of prosocial behavior, and similarity, but not based on arbitrary links. Children privileged prosocial behavior over similarity when asked to adjudicate between the two. Adults (N = 120) were tested online and showed the same overall pattern of inferences. Furthermore, 4-year-olds (N = 27) expected individuals who had engaged in prosocial behavior to be playmates as well as friends, and to share preferences for novel games, but not novel foods. These findings shed crucial light on preschoolers' third-party friendship inferences, and add to our knowledge of their concept of friendship.     

Preschoolers modulate contrastive inferences during online language comprehension

This study examined 4- and 5-year-olds' incremental interpretation of size adjectives, focusing on whether contrastive inferences are modulated by speaker behavior. Children (N = 120, 59 females, mostly White, tested between July, 2018 and August, 2019) encountered either a conventional or unconventional speaker who labeled objects in a correspondingly typical or atypical way. Critical utterances contained size adjectives (e.g., “Look at the big duck”). With conventional speakers, gaze measures indicated that children rapidly used the adjective to differentiate members of a contrasting pair, indicating that even 4-year-olds derive contrastive inferences. With unconventional speakers, contrastive inferences were delayed in processing. The findings demonstrate that preschoolers adjust their use of pragmatic cues when presented with evidence disconfirming their default assumptions about a speaker.     

Young children selectively avoid helping people with harmful intentions

Two studies investigated whether young children are selectively prosocial toward others, based on the others' moral behaviors. In Study 1 (N = 54), 3-year-olds watched 1 adult (the actor) harming or helping another adult. Children subsequently helped the harmful actor less often than a third (previously neutral) adult, but helped the helpful and neutral adults equally often. In Study 2 (N = 36), 3-year-olds helped an actor who intended but failed to harm another adult less often than a neutral adult, but helped an accidentally harmful and a neutral adult equally often. Children's prosocial behavior was thus mediated by the intentions behind the actor's moral behavior, irrespective of outcome. Children thus selectively avoid helping those who cause--or even intend to cause--others harm.     

Young Children's Trust Beliefs in Peers: Relations to Social Competence and Interactive Behaviors in a Peer Group

Research Findings: The aim of this study was to explore the relations between children's trust beliefs and social competence as well as social preference. In addition, this study examined how children with different trust belief profiles may differ in their peer interactive behaviors. A total of 47 children ages 5 to 6 participated in this study. Data were collected via observation of play behaviors, a teacher-rated social competence scale, and a child interview. The results indicated that children's trust beliefs in friends’ promise-keeping behaviors were positively associated with intrapersonal and interpersonal domains of social competence. Children who had greater trust in non-friend classmates’ promise-keeping behaviors tended to be sociable in a group, polite, and more preferred, and they were less likely to be disliked by peers. Children with different trust profiles exhibited differential interactive behaviors with peers. Practice or Policy: These findings suggest that parents and early childhood educators should pay more attention to the extent to which young children trust their close friends and familiar peers, especially in terms of keeping promises. Adults may model their efforts in keeping their promises made to children and enhance children's capacity to reciprocate trust in close relationships. Adults can help children differentiate their trust based on the intimacy of relationships.     

The Emergence of Forgiveness in Young Children

Humans depend greatly on our cooperative relationships. Thus, when our relationships are damaged by transgressions, they need to be repaired. Such repair requires that the transgressor show remorse and the victim forgive. Previous research demonstrates that as transgressors, young children show remorse and attempt to repair the harm they caused. However, it remains unclear when children, as victims, forgive remorseful transgressors. In Study 1, 5-, but not 4-year-olds, (n = 20 each) were more forgiving of a remorseful transgressor (who did not explicitly apologize) than an unremorseful transgressor. In Study 2, 4-year-olds (n = 20) were more forgiving of an apologetic than unapologetic transgressor. Thus, from early in ontogeny, humans are motivated to repair damaged relationships and thus uphold cooperation.     

Children’s Appraisals of Gender Nonconformity: Developmental Pattern and Intervention

Gender-nonconforming (GN) children are often perceived less positively, which may harm their well-being. We examined the development of such perceptions and an intervention to modify them. Chinese children’s appraisals were assessed using multiple measures (verbal responses, sharing, and rank order task) after viewing vignettes of gender-conforming (GC) and GN hypothetical peers. In Study 1, children (N = 210; 4-, 5-, 8-, and 9-year-olds) were less positive toward GN than GC peers, especially if they were older or if the peers were boys. In Study 2 (N = 211, 8- and 9-year-olds), showing children exemplars of GN peers who displayed positive and GC characteristics subsequently reduced bias against gender nonconformity. These findings inform strategies aimed at reducing bias against gender nonconformity.     

Young Children’s Ability to Produce Valid and Relevant Counter-Arguments

In collaborative problem solving, children produce and evaluate arguments for proposals. We investigated whether 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 192) can produce and evaluate arguments against those arguments (i.e., counter-arguments). In Study 1, each child within a peer dyad was privately given a reason to prefer one over another solution to a task. One child, however, was given further information that would refute the reasoning of their partner. Five-year-olds, but not 3-year-olds, identified and produced valid and relevant counter-arguments. In Study 2, 3-year-olds were given discourse training (discourse that contrasted valid and invalid counter-arguments) and then given the same problem-solving tasks. After training, 3-year-olds could also identify and produce valid and relevant counter-arguments. Thus, participating in discourse about reasons facilitates children’s counter-argumentation.     

Modeling Prosocial Behavior Increases Helping in 16-Month-Olds

In two experiments, the imitation of helping behavior in 16-month-olds was investigated. In Study 1 (N = 31), infants either observed an adult model helping or not helping another individual before they had the opportunity to assist an unfamiliar experimenter. In one of two tasks, more children helped in the prosocial model condition than in the no model control condition. In Study 2 (N = 60), a second control condition was included to test whether infants imitated the prosocial intention (no neediness control). Children in the prosocial model condition helped more readily than children in the no model condition, with the second control condition falling in between. These findings propose that modeling provides a critical learning mechanism in early prosocial development.     

Exploring the Causal Effect of Interpretation Bias on Attachment Expectations

Attachment theory implies that children's inclination to interpret attachment figures behavior as supportive and available causally influences children's trust in their attachment figure's availability. An experiment was conducted to test whether training children (8–12 years old) to interpret ambiguous interactions with their mothers in a more secure way increases their trust in their mother's availability. Participants (N = 49) were randomly assigned to either a secure condition to train children to interpret their mother's behavior as supportive or a neutral placebo condition, where interpretations were unrelated to maternal support. Results supported the hypothesis: After the secure training, children interpreted maternal behavior more securely and trusted more in her availability. This suggests that attachment‐related processing biases causally affect attachment expectations.     

Children's Developing Descriptions and Judgments of Pretending

Two studies investigated 4- to 7-year-olds’ knowledge about pretending. In Study 1, children (N = 66) defined pretending and described examples of own and others’ pretending. In Study 2, children (N = 52) defined pretending and then completed a battery of measures that examined their understanding that pretending involved mental states. In Study 1, older children articulated more defining features of pretending than younger children. When describing how they or others pretended, children focused on action or appearance, regardless of whether they had included more defining features in their definitions of pretending. In Study 2, the more defining features children articulated, the better their performance on the battery. We discuss the implications of these data for the role of pretending in children's developing theory of mind.     

White children's empathy-related responding and prosocial behavior toward White and Black children

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.     

Loss of Institutional Trust Among Racial and Ethnic Minority Adolescents: A Consequence of Procedural Injustice and a Cause of Life‐Span Outcomes

This research tested a social‐developmental process model of trust discernment. From sixth to eighth grade, White and African American students were surveyed twice yearly (ages 11–14; Study 1, N = 277). African American students were more aware of racial bias in school disciplinary decisions, and as this awareness grew it predicted a loss of trust in school, leading to a large trust gap in seventh grade. Loss of trust by spring of seventh grade predicted African Americans’ subsequent discipline infractions and 4‐year college enrollment. Causality was confirmed with a trust‐restoring “wise feedback” treatment delivered in spring of seventh grade that improved African Americans’ eighth‐grade discipline and college outcomes. Correlational findings were replicated with Latino and White students (ages 11–14; Study 2, N = 206).     

Helping,Sharing, and Comforting in Young Children: Links to Individual Differences in Attachment

Although attachment theory has long posited a link between early experiences of care and children's prosocial behavior, investigations of this association have not embraced the multifaceted nature of prosociality. This study is the first to assess associations between child attachment and independent observations of helping, sharing, and comforting. Attachment quality in 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 137) was linked to all three prosocial behaviors. Additionally, bifactor analyses revealed distinct associations between attachment and children's general prosocial dispositions and their specific abilities to meet the unique challenges of helping and, marginally, comforting. These findings underscore the importance of considering multiple explanations for links between attachment and prosocial behavior and provide novel insights into sources of variation in children's prosociality.     

Social pretend play in 2-year-olds: Effects of age of partner

The role of the partner in the development of social pretend play was examined in two related studies. In both studies toddler-age children (Study One: n = 16, Study Two: n = 48) played with same-age and 5-year-old partners. In both studies 2-year-olds engaged in more social pretend play with older than with same-age partners. In mixed play sessions, 2-year-olds and 5-year-olds engaged in asymmetrical interaction. However, 5-year-olds used similar social behaviors with same-age and younger partners. In Study two, the 5-year-old partners (n = 32) were asked either to play with or to teach their younger partners. No differences were found in 5-year-old behavior under the two conditions, and younger children did not engage in more complex social pretend play in subsequent play with age-mates.     

Preschool children’s use of meta-talk to make rational collaborative decisions

In collaborative decision-making, partners compare reasons behind conflicting proposals through meta-talk. We investigated UK-based preschoolers’ (mixed socioeconomic status) use of meta-talk (Data collection: 2018–2020). In Study 1, 5- and 7-year-old peer dyads (N = 128, 61 girls) heard conflicting claims about an animal from two informants. One prefaced her claim with “I know”; the other with “I think”. Dyads identified the more reliable informant through meta-talk (“She said she knows”). In Study 2, 3- and 5-year-olds (N = 64, 34 girls) searched for a toy with an adult partner making incorrect proposals. Children refuted this through reporting what they had witnessed (It cannot be there because “I saw it move”, “she moved it”). In preschool period, children start using meta-talk to make rational collaborative decisions.     

Preschoolers' prosocial repertoires: Parents' perspectives

Two cross-sectional developmental studies of prosocial behaviors displayed in natural settings by 2- and 5-year-olds using a prototype approach are reported. In the first study, caretakers described the most prosocial child they knew, resulting in 20 attributes for 2-year-olds and 24 attributes for 5-year-olds. In the second study, parents rated the relative importance of each attribute in defining a child as prosocial. Results indicated more similarities than differences between the two age groups and that research has underrepresented the rich repertoire of naturally occurring prosocial behavior in young children, ignoring behaviors salient and important to parents (e.g., being cheerful, sensitive, affectionate, friendly, and praising others) in favor of less typical behaviors (e.g., donation of commodities to charity). Broader and more relevant indices of prosocial behavior are needed. Results provide researchers with a data base which enables them to make informed decisions about the assessment of prosocial behavior.     

The Longitudinal Associations Among Temperament,Parenting, and Turkish Children's Prosocial Behaviors

In Turkey, responsive behaviors toward kin are expected from children. Despite this, we know little about the factors that influence young Turkish children's prosocial behaviors. The goal was to explore how temperament and parenting are related to children's prosocial development in Turkey. A total of 293 Turkish children (M_age = 49 months; 48.12% females) were followed up for 3 years. Mothers completed measures of their child's prosocial behaviors, as well as measures of their warmth, inductive reasoning, and the child's approach and reactivity. Maternal warmth predicted children's reactivity, and maternal induction predicted children's sociability. Children's reactivity was inversely related to children's helping behavior and sociability was related to more prosocial behavior. Maternal warmth had indirect links with helping through lessening children's reactivity.