Abstract
Studies on the development of prosociality in adolescents have largely been based on Western populations and those studies mainly focused on the development of prosocial behavior. The current study regarded prosociality as a personal trait and examined changes in the emotional, cognitive and behavioral aspects of prosociality during adolescence in a collectivistic culture. With a sample of 9813 Chinese adolescents, we measured their sympathy, perspective taking, and compliant prosocial behavior as well as performance in Dictator Game and Ultimatum Game. The results showed that in general all the measured indicators of prosociality slightly declined with age in adolescents, regardless of gender and residence. Moreover, compared with the emotional and cognitive aspects, the behavioral aspect of prosociality showed slightly larger declines. Our findings suggest that prosociality might decrease with age in adolescence in such a culture.
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This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 31571134, 31872782).
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Appendix
Appendix
1.1 Items of each questionnaire used in the current study
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A.
The measure of compliant prosocial behavior
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1.
When people ask me to help them, I don’t hesitate.
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2.
I never wait to help others when they ask for it.
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3.
When people ask me to help them, I seldom refuse.
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4.
I will try my best to help others when they ask for it.
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5.
I will stop my work to help others when they ask for it.
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B.
The measure of sympathy (R = reversed-scoring)
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1.
I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me.
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2.
Sometimes I don’t feel very sorry for other people when they are having problems. (R)
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3.
When I see someone being taken advantage of, I feel kind of protective towards them.
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4.
Other people’s misfortunes do not usually disturb me a great deal. (R)
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5.
When I see someone being treated unfairly, I sometimes don’t feel very much pity for them. (R)
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6.
I would describe myself as a pretty soft-hearted person.
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C.
The measure of perspective taking
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1.
I try to look at everybody’s side of a disagreement before I make a decision.
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2.
I sometimes try to understand my friends better by imagining how things look from their perspective.
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3.
I believe that there are two sides to every question and try to look at them both.
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4.
When I’m upset at someone, I usually try to “put myself in his shoes” for a while.
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5.
Before criticizing somebody, I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place.
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Su, J., Yao, C., Pei, M. et al. Prosociality Across Adolescence: a Large Cross-Sectional Study. Child Ind Res 13, 131–145 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-019-09668-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-019-09668-w