The Development of Prosociality from Adolescence to Early Adulthood: The Role of Effortful Control

2012/08/28 by Bernadette P. Luengo Kanacri, Bernadette Paula Luengo Kanacri, Concetta Pastorelli +3 · 135 citations
Medicine · Psychology · #Affect (linguistics) #Attachment and Relationship Dynamics #Behavioral Health and Interventions #Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development #Developmental psychology #Early adulthood #Latent growth modeling #Longitudinal study #Medicine #Prosocial behavior #Psychology #Young adult

paper · doi:10.1111/jopy.12001

published in Journal of Personality 81(3), 302-312 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2012/08/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The present longitudinal study examined the development of self-reported prosociality (i.e., the tendency to enact prosocial behaviors) from adolescence to early adulthood and its prediction from teacher-reported effortful control (i.e., dispositional regulation) at age 13. METHOD: Participants were 573 (276 girls) Italian adolescents aged approximately 13 (M = 12.98, SD = 0.80) at the first assessment and 21 (M = 21.23, SD = 0.67) at the last assessment. The study used three different cohorts recruited across ten years (from 1994 to 2004) from a larger longitudinal project with a multiple-cohort design. RESULTS: Latent growth curve modeling indicated that the overall level of prosociality declined until approximately age 17 with a subsequent slight rebound until age 21. Significant inter-individual variability in developmental trends of prosociality in males and females was observed. Youths' effortful control was related to a lesser decline of prosociality in adolescence. CONCLUSIONS: Being able to regulate one's own emotions and behaviors in early adolescence may not only affect the tendency to behave prosocially, but also counter the self-centered tendencies observed across this phase of development.

Cited by

• Trajectories of prosocial behaviors conducive to civic outcomes during the transition to adulthood: The predictive role of family dynamics☆
• Links between self-regulation patterns and prosocial behavior trajectories from middle childhood to early adolescence: a longitudinal study
• Sharing and giving across adolescence: an experimental study examining the development of prosocial behavior. [europepmc]
• Developmental Trajectories of Social Skills during Early Childhood and Links to Parenting Practices in a Japanese Sample. [europepmc]
• Positive parenting and children's prosocial behavior in eight countries. [europepmc]
• Prosocial Behavior Increases with Age across Five Economic Games. [europepmc]
• Prosocial Reward Learning in Children and Adolescents. [europepmc]
• But is helping you worth the risk? Defining Prosocial Risk Taking in adolescence. [europepmc]
• The developmental course of community service across the transition to adulthood in a national U.S. sample. [europepmc]
• Prosocial Behavior in Adolescence: Gender Differences in Development and Links with Empathy. [europepmc]
• Examining the intertwined development of prosocial skills and ASD symptoms in adolescence. [europepmc]
• Relations Among Maternal Life Satisfaction, Shared Activities, and Child Well-Being. [europepmc]
• Developmental Changes and Individual Differences in Trust and Reciprocity in Adolescence. [europepmc]
• Neurometabolic and functional connectivity basis of prosocial behavior in early adolescence. [europepmc]
• The Role of Stressful Parenting and Mineralocorticoid Receptor Haplotypes on Social Development During Adolescence and Young Adulthood. [europepmc]
• Age and Gender Effects in Sensitivity to Social Rewards in Adolescents and Young Adults. [europepmc]
• Forgiveness, Gratitude, Happiness, and Prosocial Bystander Behavior in Bullying. [europepmc]
• Self-Esteem Moderates the Effect of Compromising Thinking on Forgiveness Among Chinese Early Adolescents. [europepmc]
• A Parallel Process Model of Integration and Multidimensional Prosocial Behaviors in Recent Immigrant U.S. Latinx Adolescents. [europepmc]
• Depression in Children and Adolescents on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: Associations with Resilience and Prosocial Behavior. [europepmc]
• Longitudinal Relations among Maternal Self-Efficacy, Maternal Warmth, and Early Adolescents' Prosocial Behavior. [europepmc]
• A Review of the Relationship Between Social Media Use and Online Prosocial Behavior Among Adolescents. [europepmc]
• Birth order and prosociality in the early adolescent brain. [europepmc]
• The personality and cognitive traits associated with adolescents' sensitivity to social norms. [europepmc]
• Toward Generalized Concern: The Development of Compassion and Links to Kind Orientations. [europepmc]
• Autism, thy name is man: Exploring implicit and explicit gender bias in autism perceptions. [europepmc]
• Do Adolescents Adopt the Prosocial Behaviors of the Classmates They Like? A Social Network Analysis on Prosocial Contagion. [europepmc]

Related

• Links between self-regulation patterns and prosocial behavior trajectories from middle childhood to early adolescence: a longitudinal study
• Intra‐individual associations between intentional self‐regulation and prosocial behavior during adolescence: Evidence for bidirectionality
• The Role of Emotional Reactivity, Self‐regulation, and Puberty in Adolescents' Prosocial Behaviors
• Does Prosociality in Early-to Mid-Adolescence Protect Against Later Development of Antisocial Behaviours?
• Prosocial Behavior: Long‐term Trajectories and Psychosocial Outcomes