Abstract
Despite empirical findings that prosociality is related to decreased depressive symptoms in children, little is known about the directionality of the relations and the mechanisms that may explain the relations. To address these gaps, this study examined bi-directional associations between prosociality and depressive symptoms and the mediating effects of peer preference on the associations in Chinese children. Multi-wave longitudinal data were collected each year from Grades 3 to 6 in a sample of children in China (initial N = 1012; 51.6% girls; initial Mage = 8.68 years). The results showed that prosociality and depression negatively contributed to each other over time. Prosociality also predicted increased peer preference, which in turn contributed to fewer depressive symptoms, suggesting that peer preference was a mediator of the contributions of prosociality to depressive symptoms. These findings indicate the temporal ordering of prosociality and depressive symptoms and the processes in the development of depressive symptoms in Chinese children.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the children for their participation.
Authors’ Contributions
G.J. conceived of the topic of the present study, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript; R.F. helped perform the statistical analysis and write the manuscript; D.L. participated in the design and coordination of the project and helped draft the manuscript; X.C. participated in conceptualization and design of the project and helped write the manuscript; and J.L. participated in the design and coordination of the project and interpretation of the data. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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The research reported here was supported by Key Innovation Project of Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (2019-01-07-00-02-E00005) and Shanghai Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project (2019BSH016).
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The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Jin, G., Fu, R., Li, D. et al. Longitudinal Associations Between Prosociality and Depressive Symptoms in Chinese Children: The Mediating Role of Peer Preference. J Youth Adolescence 51, 956–966 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01501-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01501-4