Influence of parental practices expectations and modeling in youth prosocial behavior

RICHAUD, M. C., MESURADO, BELÉN

Melbourne

Simposio; International Congress of Applied Psychology 2010; 2010

Eisenberg and Fabes (1998) observed that prosocial behavior (i.e., activities primarily intended to have positive outcomes for others) is the result of multiple individual and situational factors including parental variables (e.g., styles, practices). However, the existing evidence for the links between parenting styles and prosocial behaviors are quite scarce, especially among adolescents (Carlo, Fabes, Laible, & Kupanoff, 1999). As a result, some scholars have suggested that parenting practices, rather than parenting styles, may better predict behavioral outcomes and prosocial behaviors (Carlo et al., 1998, 2007; see Darling & Steinberg, 1993). One dimension of practices associated with prosocial and moral development is parent–child discussions about moral issues. Developmental scholars have suggested that parents who engage in conversations about moral issues with their children are more apt to have children who internalize their parents’ moral values and standards (Laible, 2004; see Thompson, 2006). Such conversations are expected to foster an orientation to the needs of others, broaden children’s social perspective, and directly transmit parents’ notions regarding moral issues (Dunn, Cutting, & Demetriou, 2000). Furthermore, frequent conversations between parents and children might be expected to facilitate close, interpersonal relationships, which should foster empathy, sympathy, and interpersonal prosocial behaviors. Although much has been discussed by scholars regarding the central role of parent–child conversations, direct empirical evidence is lacking, particularly on the effects of conversations in adolescents’ prosocial behaviors.