Psychometric Properties of Prosocial Tendencies Measure in Three Different Cultures. A Preliminary Study.

MARÍA CRISTINA RICHAUD; GUSTAVO CARLO; BELÉN MESURADO; GEORGE KNIGHT

Vanocuver

Congreso; 14th SRA (Society for Research on Adolescence) 2012 Biennial Meeting.; 2012

Society for Research on Adolescence

Existing measures of prosocial behaviors are divided into global and situation specific measures. There is recent evidence that different types of prosocial behaviors have different personal and situational correlates (Carlo, 2006). Carlo and Randall (2001) proposed six kinds of prosocial behaviors: (a) altruistic: voluntary helping motivated primarily by concern for the need and welfare of others, (b) compliant: helping others in response to request, (c) emotional: helping others under emotionally evocative circumstances, (d) public: conducted, at least in part, by a desire to gain the approval and respect of others and enhance one´s self-worth, (e) anonymous: performed without knowledge of whom is helped, and (f) dire: helping in crisis or emergency circumstances. Based on this model, a multidimensional measure of prosocial behavior (Prosocial Tendencies Measure; PTM) was developed. Although evidence on the utility of examining different forms of helping is mounting, research on the psychometric properties of the measure to use with adolescents from different cultures is lacking. The purpose of this presentation is to analyze the psychometric properties of the PTM in adolescents from three different cultures: Argentina, Mexican-American and European-American. This study included 849 participants from Argentina (M age = 11.34 years, SD = 1.04; 54.7% girls), 185 from Mexican-American (M age = 10.89 years, SD =.84; 53.9% girls) and 125 from European-American (M age = 11.05 years, SD = .77; 46.4% girls). The 21-item version of the PTM (Carlo & Randall, 2002) was composed of six subscales: public (I can help others best when people are watching me), anonymous (I prefer to donate money anonymously), dire (It is easy for me to help others when they are in a bad situation), emotional (It makes me feel good when I can comfort someone who is very upset), compliant (I never wait to help others when they ask for it), and altruistic (reverse score items, I think that one of the best things about helping others is that it makes me look good). Participants were asked to rate the extent to which statements described themselves on a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (does not describe me) to 5 (describes me greatly). To study the factor structure in the three different cultures, three confirmatory factor analyses were performed using software AMOS 16.0. The theoretical model that indicates six factors corresponding to the six proposed dimensions of prosocial behavior fit the data satisfactorily in all cultures: Argentina [chi-square (174) = 765.6, p = .000, chi-square/df =4.4; GFI = .92; AGFI = .89, NFI = .91, RMSEA = .06]; Mexican-American [chi-square(174) = 300.38, p = .000, chi-square/df =1.73; GFI = .87; AGFI = .83, NFI = .77, RMSEA = .06], and finally European-American [ chi-square(174) = 315.48, p = .000, chi-square/df =1.81; GFI = .80; AGFI = .74, NFI = .76, RMSEA = .08 ]. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for Argentinean, Mexican-American, and European-American samples are the following, respectively: public = .66; .76; .79, anonymous =.73; .66; .71, dire = .73; .64; .72, emotional = .89; .76; .75, compliant = .78; .49; .61, and altruism = .70; .69; 86. Discussion. In general, the findings yield evidence that the PTM has relatively adequate factor structure fit across the three culture groups. These findings suggest that the PTM assesses six distinct forms of prosocial behaviors in Latino and European American cultures. Although further analyses is needed to examine whether alternative models fit well, the finding support the notion that prosocial behaviors are context- and motive-specific rather than a global, unitary construct. As in a previous study (Richaud, Mesurado, & Khoan, 2011), there were strong correlations among emotional, compliant and dire. This pattern of relations suggests the possibility that these types of prosocial behaviors reflect a "responsive" form of prosocial behavior that may be be elicited by an intense external demand: a serious crisis, a strong emotional state of another person, or a concrete request. Similarly, the correlation between public and altruistic may reflect a broad form of prosocial behavior that encompasses selfish versus selfless motives. In summary, the findings demonstrate the need to examine more specific forms of prosocial behaviors. Future research will be needed to investigate the trajectories and correlates of each form of prosocial behavior.