Prosocial Behavior and Human Development

Thus, this study examined how prosocial behavior toward different targets might change over time as individuals develop from adolescence into adulthood. Results suggested that prosocial behavior toward strangers increased across early to mid-adolescence and then flattened out during the transition to adulthood. Additionally, the results showed that prosocial behavior toward friends increased steadily, and prosocial behavior toward family was relatively stable across adolescence and then increased. The implications from this study suggest that many adolescents actually demonstrate increases, rather than decreases, in prosociality.

Padilla-Walker, L., Carlo, G., & Memmott-Elison, M. K. (2017). Longitudinal change in adolescents’ prosocial behavior toward strangers, friends, and family. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 1-13. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jora.12362.