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Background: Proximal and distal factors interact to shape children's development and well-being. The present study aimed to examine socioeconomic status (SES), linguistic skills, and language background as concurrent predictors of socio-emotional and behavioural outcomes in heritage bilingual and monolingual children attending preschool., Methods: Parents of 1810 children (mean age = 63.42 months ± 7.36), attending preschool in Italy, completed the Four Factor Index of SES and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Teachers (n = 99) completed a questionnaire on children's linguistic skills and emotional and behavioural profiles. A subsample of 995 children was administered an expressive vocabulary task in Italian., Results: Regression analyses showed that linguistic skills were the only concurrent predictor of conduct problems, as well as the dominant predictor of hyperactivity/impulsivity, peer problems, and better prosocial behaviour. SES was negatively related to ADHD traits, peer problems, and prosocial behaviour. Finally, heritage bilingualism background was associated, although not as a primary predictor, with increased emotional problems, peer relationship problems, and lower teacher-rated emotional and behavioural skills. However, it was the main factor positively associated with prosocial behaviour., Conclusions: The implications of these findings for research in this area and for educational policy are discussed, highlighting the need for a multidimensional perspective that includes linguistic skills and SES in the assessment of children's emotional and behavioural outcomes., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: Satisfaction and happiness are two widely studied topics in current literature. Human beings need to find happiness. However, for many authors, satisfaction is a prerequisite for happiness. Satisfaction, in turn, can be approached from different perspectives, such as job satisfaction, health satisfaction, and social life satisfaction. This research analyses the relationship between these variables and their influence on proactive social behaviour., Methods: The present study utilised the European Social Survey, an academic survey conducted across Europe in its round 10, carried out between 2022 and 2023, with a database of 25,311 valid responses. Structural equation modelling analysis conduct using PLS-SEM with the Smart PLS software., Results: The results demonstrate a direct and significant relationship between overall satisfaction and happiness and between happiness and prosocial behaviour. Similarly, a solid indirect relationship exists between satisfaction and prosocial behaviour in society. Furthermore, job satisfaction is among the variables influencing overall satisfaction and happiness. However, it is not the most important, with satisfaction with social life being the most influential on satisfaction., Conclusions and Implications: Happiness is one of the main variables that influence people's lives. As we have observed, this happiness has a direct and solid relationship with the individual's level of satisfaction, with job satisfaction and satisfaction with social life being the most influential in this relationship between satisfaction and happiness. Therefore, these conclusions must be understood by both workers and employers and public administrations. Additionally, the relationship between happiness and prosocial behaviour is an interesting topic that the governments of countries and regions in Europe should consider., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: The academic development and widespread adoption of meditation practices for well-being and therapy have predominantly focused on secularised adaptations of Buddhist and Hindu techniques. This study aims to expand the field by investigating Christian and Islamic meditation that emphasize the spiritual significance of the heart through elements of visualisation and recitation. It compares the effects of spiritual heart-centred meditation with mindfulness meditation and a waitlist control, focusing on dimensions of social functioning, psychophysiology, cognition, and mental health., Method: This study employs a stratified 3-arm randomised controlled method with mixed-method repeated measures across three assessment time points: before intervention (T1), after an 8-week intervention (T2), and at a 3-month follow up (T3). The three conditions include spiritual meditation (either Christian or Islamic), mindfulness meditation (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction - MBSR), and a waitlist. Participants will be stratified into Christian and Muslim samples and randomly allocated to the spiritual meditation, MBSR, or waitlist control conditions. Importantly, participants assigned to the spiritual meditation condition will be matched to the spiritual meditation program corresponding to their religion. The intervention will be administered through a mobile phone app with daily 20-minute guided meditation sessions for eight weeks. Primary outcomes pertain to the domain of interpersonal functioning, focusing on prosociality, forgiveness, empathy, and perspective taking. Secondary outcomes include physiology: pain tolerance, pain intensity, stress reactivity assessed via heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV), psychophysiological reactivity associated with a forgiveness task as measured through HR and HRV, attention (alerting, orienting, and executive attention networks), and mental health (stress, depression, anxiety, subjective well-being, positive and negative affect)., Discussion: This trial aims to test the effects of an app-based Christian and Islamic meditation, compared to secular mindfulness and a waitlist, using a randomised controlled trial. If the results yield positive outcomes, this study will support the efficacy of these contemplations, offering practitioners a way to enhance their well-being within their religious framework., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT06136676. Registered on 18 November 2023. https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06136676 ., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Purpose : Research has identified a range of intrapersonal variables associated with moral behaviors in sport. However, research investigating how perfectionism and burnout are associated with prosocial and antisocial behavior toward teammates and opponents in sport has received scant attention. In the present study, we address this issue by examining whether perfectionism is associated with prosocial and antisocial behavior in sport directly and indirectly via burnout and moral disengagement. Method : A total of 312 team sport players completed validated measures for each variable. Results : Path analyses revealed that perfectionistic concerns had a negative relationship with prosocial behavior toward teammates and an indirect positive association with antisocial behavior toward both teammates and opponents via being positively associated with burnout, which in turn, was positively associated with moral disengagement. In contrast, perfectionistic strivings had a positive association with prosocial behavior toward teammates, and an indirect positive association with antisocial behavior toward teammates and opponents via moral disengagement. Conclusion : Our findings offer new insights into how perfectionism and burnout are associated with prosocial and antisocial behavior in sport, as well as highlight the need to consider perfectionistic tendencies and approaches to help reduce burnout and moral disengagement in the regulation of antisocial behavior in sport.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the significance of the severity of autistic traits, behavioural difficulties, prosocial behaviour and temperamental characteristics in children for parental self-efficacy and parental satisfaction in two groups of parents: parents of autistic children, and parents of neurotypical children. Data come from 145 parents of autistic children and 239 parents of neurotypical children. Using hierarchical multiple regression analyses, the analysis explored the role of child characteristics in prediction of parental self-efficacy and parental satisfaction. The regression model tested explained 21% variation in parental self-efficacy and 27% variation in parental satisfaction in parents of autistic children and 3% of variation of results with respect to parental self-efficacy and 17% variation in parental satisfaction in parents of neurotypical children. In both groups, parental self-efficacy and parental satisfaction were negatively correlated with such child characteristics as severity of behavioural difficulties, severity of autistic traits and emotionality as also positively related to the child's prosocial behaviour. These findings may suggest that particularly useful mental health prevention programs for parents should combine two elements: developing parents' abilities of effectively coping with children's behavioural difficulties and working on attribution processes and negative convictions about parenthood., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Prosocial behaviour is a bedrock of humane societies. Although previous studies have shown that parental style is an important contributing factor for children's prosocial behaviour, the psychological mechanism underlying this association in specific cultural background remains unclear. Based on the ecological systems theory, this study sought to explore the influence of parental warmth on children's prosocial behaviour, and the mediating effect of self-efficacy, as well as the moderating role of teachers' incentive evaluation in the link between self-efficacy and children's prosocial behaviour. This cross-sectional, survey-based study collected data from parents and teachers of 414 Chinese preschoolers (5-6 years old). Parents of these children finished questionnaires on the Chinese version of the short-form Egna minnen av. Barndoms uppfostran (s-EMBU-C), Child Behaviour Scale (CBS), and the revised General Self-efficacy Scale (GSES), while Incentive evaluation questionnaire was finished by their teachers. Results indicated that children who experience high parental warmth were more likely to act prosocially (b = 0.61, p < 0.001) and the association between parental warmth and prosocial behaviour was partially mediated by self-efficacy (indirect effect = 0.25, 95 % CI = [0.19, 0.32]). Besides, teachers' incentive evaluation moderated the link between self-efficacy and children's prosocial behaviour (b = 0.24, p < 0.001). Specifically, the effect of self-efficacy on prosocial behaviour was stronger for high teachers' incentive evaluation children than those with low teachers' incentive evaluation. These findings extend the existing understanding of the mechanism concerning the influence of parental warmth on prosocial behaviour in Chinese settings. The results revealed that interventions that could improve children's self-efficacy would be effective in accelerating their prosocial behaviour and schools played a crucial role in working with families to increase their self-efficacy at a young age. It should be noted that this study focused only on Chinese children of 5-6 years old, and the cross-sectional design means that the possibility of bidirectional effects could not be ruled out., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no competing financial interests., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Prosocial behaviours - acts that benefit others - are of crucial importance for many species including humans. However, adolescents with conduct problems (CP), unlike their typically developing (TD) peers, demonstrate markedly reduced engagement in prosocial behaviours. This pattern is particularly pronounced in adolescents with CP and high levels of callous-unemotional traits (CP/HCU) who are at increased risk of developing psychopathy in adulthood. While a substantial amount of research has investigated the cognitive-affective mechanisms thought to underlie antisocial behaviour, much less is known about the mechanisms that could explain reduced prosocial behaviours in adolescents with CP., Methods: Here we examined the willingness to exert effort to benefit oneself (self) and another person (other, prosocial condition) in children with CP/HCU, CP and lower levels of CU traits (CP/LCU) and their TD peers. The task captured both prosocial choices, and actual effort exerted following prosocial choices, in adolescent boys aged 11-16 (27 CP/HCU; 34 CP/LCU; 33 TD). We used computational modelling to reveal the mechanistic processes involved when choosing prosocial acts., Results: We found that both CP/HCU and CP/LCU groups were more averse to initiating effortful prosocial acts than TD adolescents - both at a cognitive and at a behavioural level. Strikingly, even if they chose to initiate a prosocial act, the CP/HCU group exerted less effort following this prosocial choice than other groups., Conclusions: Our findings indicate that reduced exertion of effort to benefit others may be an important factor that differentiates adolescents with CP/HCU from their peers with CP/LCU. They offer new insights into what might drive low prosocial behaviour in adolescents with CP, including vulnerabilities that may particularly characterise those with high levels of CU traits., (© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Promoting interpersonal helping among coworkers is an important aim for any organisation that cares about employee well-being. Drawing on guilt aversion hypothesis, this research focuses on the power of social expectations in promoting prosocial behaviour among employees and investigates the role of anticipated guilt for failing to meet coworkers' expectations. In two preregistered studies, the effect of beneficiary expectation on benefactors' anticipated guilt and intention to help was investigated. In Study 1, Japanese participants ( n  = 284) recalled a situation when they helped a coworker spontaneously, and evaluated perceived beneficiary expectation to receive help, as well as anticipated guilt for not helping. Beneficiary expectation positively predicted anticipated guilt, and the effect was stronger when the beneficiary was a same-status colleague, and when interpersonal helping frequency in the organisation was low. Study 2 ( n  = 499) employed vignettes and manipulated beneficiary expectation. A mediational model revealed that beneficiary expectation leads to more anticipated guilt for not helping, which, in turn, increases employees' intention to help. Together, these studies show that employees are sensitive to their coworkers' expectations, and guilt-averse; therefore, interpersonal helping among employees may be promoted by establishing legitimate expectations of prosociality in the workplace.

The present study used a cross-lagged design to explore the bidirectional relationship between adolescents' prosocial behaviour and self-perceived physical health and to explore the mediating role of positive affect and the moderating role of openness to experience. A total of 1525 middle school students ( M  = 12.41, 47% male) in northern China were surveyed for 3 years. The results showed the following: (1) prosocial behaviour at T1 positively predicted self-perceived physical health at T3; and vice versa; and (2) this observed relation between prosocial behaviour and self-perceived physical health was explained by positive affect; (3) the mediating role of positive affect on the path from prosocial behaviour at T1 to self-perceived physical health at T3 was observed only among adolescents with high openness traits. This finding verified the protective effect of prosocial behaviour on the healthy development of the actor.age  = 12.41, 47% male) in northern China were surveyed for 3 years. The results showed the following: (1) prosocial behaviour at T1 positively predicted self-perceived physical health at T3; and vice versa; and (2) this observed relation between prosocial behaviour and self-perceived physical health was explained by positive affect; (3) the mediating role of positive affect on the path from prosocial behaviour at T1 to self-perceived physical health at T3 was observed only among adolescents with high openness traits. This finding verified the protective effect of prosocial behaviour on the healthy development of the actor., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Recent research has attested to the prevalence of mental health issues in sport, and the need to identify factors that could promote athletes' mental health. In this study, we investigated: (a) whether authentic leadership is associated with athletes' mental health directly and indirectly via psychological capital and prosocial and antisocial behaviour experienced from one's teammates; and (b) whether the hypothesized model testing these relationships is the same in higher versus lower competitive level athletes. We examined two dimensions of mental health, namely positive mental health and mental illness. A total of 751 athletes (Mage = 22.92, SD = 8.53; 294 female) from a range of sports completed a multi-section questionnaire administered via an online survey. Path analysis showed that authentic leadership was positively related to positive mental health via psychological capital and prosocial behaviour and negatively linked to mental illness via psychological capital and antisocial behaviour. The effects of authentic leadership on positive mental health via prosocial teammate behaviour and subsequently psychological capital, and on mental illness via prosocial teammate behaviour, were stronger in higher compared to lower competitive level athletes. The findings suggest that by adopting an authentic leadership style coaches could strengthen athletes' positive mental health and protect them from mental illness. This may happen by increasing athletes' psychological capital and prosocial behaviour within the team and decreasing antisocial behaviour within the team., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Background: Well-being is a key aspect of children's education, yet measurement issues have limited studies in early primary school., Aims: The current 12-month longitudinal study assesses the temporal stability of child- and parent-reported school well-being and examines developmental links with academic self-concept and parent-rated prosocial behaviour., Sample(s): We tracked a sample of 206 children across the transition from the first (T1) to the second (T2) year of primary school (T1 child M age  = 5.3, SD = .46, 54.3% girls) and gathered ratings of well-being, prosocial behaviour and academic self-concept at both timepoints., Methods: We used cross-lagged analyses to investigate developmental links between these three constructs., Results: Parent and child reports of children's well-being showed similar temporal stability and converged over time, such that informants' reports showed a modest but significant correlation at T2. Girls reported greater well-being than boys at both timepoints and received higher parental ratings of well-being than boys at T2. For both girls and boys, associations between the constructs were asymmetric: early well-being predicted later self-concept and prosocial behaviour, but the reciprocal associations were not significant., Conclusions: These findings support the validity of young children's self-reported well-being, highlight the early onset of gender differences in school well-being and demonstrate that early well-being heralds later prosocial behaviour and positive academic self-concepts., (© 2023 The Authors. British Journal of Educational Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.)

Children's moral self-concept (MSC) has been proposed to relate to prosocial behaviour. However, systematic assessments of their inter-relations are scarce. Therefore, this longitudinal study investigated the development, structure and inter-relation of prosocial behaviours and the MSC in childhood, using three measurement points at ages 4, 5 and 6 years. We assessed children's MSC and helping, sharing and comforting behaviours in a laboratory setting. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed a three-dimensional MSC structure at 5 and 6 years, but not at 4 years. There was inconsistent stability across time points regarding prosocial behaviour and MSC. For the comforting domain, but not the other domains, cross-lagged relations between self-concept and behaviour were present. Moreover, helping behaviour and self-concept were inter-related at 6 years. Results provide support for reciprocal associations between MSC and prosocial behaviour, albeit only in the comforting domain. They highlight the importance of distinguishing between types of prosocial behaviour and corresponding dimensions of the self-concept, as different developmental trajectories and associations emerge., (© 2024 The Authors. British Journal of Developmental Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.)

In navigating the complexities of social life, humans have evolved to interpret invisible odorous chemical cues, with profound behavioural impacts often unbeknown to the conscious mind. The manifestation of this in humans is evident in the scent of androstadienone (androsta-4,16-dien-3-one), an odorous compound which is considered a putative human pheromone. The current study investigated the effect of androstadienone on social distance-dependent prosocial behaviour measured by a social discounting task, in which participants chose between selfish and generous options. Based on our pre-registration, we predicted a sex-specific effect, with males exposed to androstadienone exhibiting increased generosity, while females would choose more selfishly. Employing a double-blind, placebo-controlled, between-subject design, we recruited 170 participants who were randomly assigned to either the androstadienone or control condition. Olfactory stimuli were administered while participants completed the social discounting task. Inconsistent with our hypothesis, inhaling androstadienone did not impact social distance-dependent prosocial behaviour. This finding was supported by multiple estimates of prosociality, including model-free, model-based and maximum likelihood estimation. Further analyses indicated that androstadienone administration did not influence perceived social distance or bias participants towards being generous or selfish. Thus, our empirical findings provide no support for the hypothesis that androstadienone modulates generosity., Competing Interests: We declare we have no competing interests, (© 2024 The Authors.)

Ant rescue behaviour belongs to the most interesting subcategories of prosocial and altruistic behaviour encountered in the animal world. Several studies suggested that ants are able to identify what exactly restrains the movements of another individual and to direct their rescue behaviour precisely to that object. To shed more light on the question of how precise the identification of the source of restraint of another ant is, we investigated rescue behaviour of red wood ant Formica polyctena workers, using a new version of an artificial snare bioassay in which a nestmate victim bore two wire loops on its body, one (acting as a snare) placed on its petiole and an additional one on its leg. The tested ants did not preferentially direct their rescue behaviour towards the snare. Moreover, the overall strategy adopted by the most active rescuers was not limited to precisely targeted rescue attempts directed towards the snare, but consisted of frequent switching between various subcategories of rescue behaviour. These findings highlight the importance of precise identification of cognitive processes and overall behavioural strategies for better understanding of causal factors underlying animal helping behaviour in light of new facts discovered by testing of various successive research hypotheses.

Lay Abstract: Autistic people show differences in their social behaviour. But how autism affects decisions to share resources, an important part of cooperation, was previously unclear. In our study, participants made decisions about how to share money with different people, including people they felt close to, such as a friend, and people they felt less close to, such as a stranger. We found that compared to a group of non-autistic participants, autistic adults shared more money overall and this was driven by greater generosity to strangers. The results suggest that autistic adults were more generous because they made fair decisions (an equal split of the money) more consistently regardless of how close they felt to the person they were sharing with. By showing that autistic adults display greater generosity, our results could help to change public perceptions of autism and potentially improve opportunities for autistic people., Competing Interests: Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Background: Limited research has explored the relationship between adhering to 24-h Movement Behaviour guidelines and mental health in Chinese preschool children. The objectives of this study encompassed two primary goals: (1) to investigate the adherence of preschool children in China to the 24-h Movement Behaviour guidelines; and (2) to analyze the relationship between fulfilling various combinations of these guidelines and mental health, identifying the most advantageous combination., Methods: Utilizing a convenience sampling approach, this study included 205 preschool children (117 boys and 88 girls, average age 4.8 ± 0.51 years) from five kindergartens in Hengyang, Hunan Province. The physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour of preschool children were objectively assessed using waist-worn accelerometers, while sleep duration and screen time were reported by the children's parents. To evaluate mental health, the parent version of the internationally validated Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was employed, which measures externalizing problems, internalizing problems, and prosocial behaviour. Employing Mplus 8.0 for Structural Equation Modeling analysis, while controlling for demographic variables, the study explored the connection between preschool children's mental health and their adherence to the 24-h Movement Behaviour guidelines., Results: Worryingly, merely 14.6% of preschoolers met the recommended guidelines for all three aspects (PA, sleep duration, and screen time). Positive correlations were identified between meeting PA guidelines and displaying prosocial behaviour ( β  = 0.184; p  < 0.05), while screen time adherence exhibited a negative correlation with externalizing problems ( β  = -0.207; p  < 0.05). Similarly, there was a negative association between sleep duration adherence and externalizing problems ( β  = -0.191; p  < 0.05). Meeting all three recommended guidelines was notably linked to enhanced prosocial behaviour ( β  = 0.464; p  < 0.05), while following the screen time and sleep duration guidelines was negatively associated with externalizing problems ( β  = -0.246; p  < 0.05)., Conclusion: This study underscores the limited adherence of Chinese preschoolers to the comprehensive 24-h Movement Behaviour guidelines. Noteworthy findings include the positive influence of PA on prosocial behaviour, alongside the significant roles that sleep duration and screen time play in mitigating externalizing problems within this age group. Alignment with the 24-h Movement Behaviour guidelines is associated with more favorable mental health indicators in preschoolers., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2024 Yin, Li, Liu, Yin, Yang, Pi and Gao.)

Humans and many other animal species act in ways that benefit others. Such prosocial behaviour has been studied extensively across a range of disciplines over the last decades, but findings to date have led to conflicting conclusions about prosociality across and even within species. Here, we present a conceptual framework to study the proximate regulation of prosocial behaviour in humans, non-human primates and potentially other animals. We build on psychological definitions of prosociality and spell out three key features that need to be in place for behaviour to count as prosocial: benefitting others, intentionality, and voluntariness. We then apply this framework to review observational and experimental studies on sharing behaviour and targeted helping in human children and non-human primates. We show that behaviours that are usually subsumed under the same terminology (e.g. helping) can differ substantially across and within species and that some of them do not fulfil our criteria for prosociality. Our framework allows for precise mapping of prosocial behaviours when retrospectively evaluating studies and offers guidelines for future comparative work., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Children's moral self-concept (MSC) has been proposed to relate to prosocial behaviour. However, systematic assessments of their interrelations are scarce. The current study examines the early development, structure, stability and interrelation of three key prosocial behaviours and the corresponding dimensions of the moral self-concept. To this end, we use a longitudinal approach with three measurement points during the preschool years at ages 4, 5 and 6 years. We assess three prosocial dimensions of children's MSC through a puppet-interview. In addition, behavioural measures of children's helping, sharing and comforting were administered in a laboratory setting. By examining the longitudinal associations between MSC and prosocial behaviours, this study will provide valuable insights into the complex nature of prosocial development in early childhood., (© 2023 The Authors. British Journal of Developmental Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.)

Adolescence is a stage of life characterised by vulnerability, which shapes young people's trajectories and potentially influences their behaviour. In this crucial period, the promotion of prosocial behaviours and the development of emotional intelligence are understood as key factors influencing adolescents' psychological and personal well-being. The general objective of this study was to find out the relationship between these two variables - prosocial behaviours and emotional intelligence - and their correlation with the maintenance of a healthy lifestyle and another fundamental aspect such as violence among young people in the academic context. A total of 743 secondary school students participated in this research with a descriptive-cross-sectional design. This study used several instruments, including an ad hoc questionnaire to assess socio-demographic aspects and school violence, the Prosocial Behaviour Questionnaire (PBQ), the TMMS-24 for the assessment of Emotional Intelligence, the Healthy Lifestyles Questionnaire (HLQ-II) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLS). The results highlighted a convincing link between the display of prosocial behaviours and emotional intelligence with various dimensions of healthy living such as healthy diet or respect for mealtimes. In particular, the research revealed a pronounced correlation between adolescents who showed greater emotional repair and respect and their lower involvement in school violence and substance use. In addition, the likelihood of having a healthy life was found to be linked to variables such as being male, respect, social relationships and emotional repair. In contrast, the likelihood of having an excessive consumption of certain harmful substances such as alcohol or tobacco was found to be linked to age, empathy and emotional clarity. These results highlight the crucial role that prosocial behaviours and emotional intelligence play in shaping adolescents' lives. In conclusion, the need to promote such variables as prosocial behaviours and emotional intelligence in adolescent students in order to promote healthy lifestyles and reduce school violence and substance use in this age group is discussed., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Will et al .'s (2021 Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 118, e2106640118 (doi:10.1073/pnas.2106640118)) found the Medusa effect, which refers to the tendency that people evaluate a 'person in picture' more mindful than a 'person in picture of a picture'. The present study tried to directly replicate the Experiments 2 and 5 of Will et al .'s (2021), to examine the reliability, validity and generalization of the Medusa effect, as well as its effect on prosocial behaviour. We used the same stimuli and methodology as the original research, but recruited participants in Japan with a larger sample size ( N = 1387 in total) as a registered report. In our two replication experiments, we again found that pictures with lower levels of abstraction (L1) were perceived to convey more mind and lead to higher levels of prosocial behaviour, successfully replicating the original findings. The results of the present study suggested the high reproducibility and generalizability of the Medusa effect. Pre-registered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/xj46z (date of in-principle acceptance: 9 February 2023)., Competing Interests: Y.Y. is a recommender and managing board member at PCI Registered Reports., (© 2024 The Authors.)

Acute stress can change our cognition and emotions, but what specific consequences this has for human prosocial behaviour is unclear. Previous studies have mainly investigated prosociality with financial transfers in economic games and produced conflicting results. Yet a core feature of many types of prosocial behaviour is that they are effortful. We therefore examined how acute stress changes our willingness to exert effort that benefits others. Healthy male participants - half of whom were put under acute stress - made decisions whether to exert physical effort to gain money for themselves or another person. With this design, we could independently assess the effects of acute stress on prosocial, compared to self-benefitting, effortful behaviour. Compared to controls (n = 45), participants in the stress group (n = 46) chose to exert effort more often for self- than for other-benefitting rewards at a low level of effort. Additionally, the adverse effects of stress on prosocial effort were particularly pronounced in more selfish participants. Neuroimaging combined with computational modelling revealed a putative neural mechanism underlying these effects: more stressed participants showed increased activation to subjective value in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula when they themselves could benefit from their exerted effort relative to when someone else could. By using an effort-based task that better approximates real-life prosocial behaviour and incorporating trait differences in prosocial tendencies, our study provides important insights into how acute stress affects prosociality and its associated neural mechanisms., Competing Interests: PF, GA, JB, BT, IW, PL, MA, CR, CL No competing interests declared, (© 2023, Forbes et al.)

Parents are an important social agent that can shape their child's behaviour in sport. However, the association between a youth athlete's perception of their parent's sideline sport behaviour and their own sporting behaviours is currently unclear. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to explore the relationship between parent and youth athlete behaviours in sport settings. Australian youth athletes ( n  = 67) participating in team-based sports completed an online survey where they reported their parents positive and negative sideline behaviours and their own prosocial and antisocial sport behaviour during the past month. Linear regression results suggested that parent's positive behaviours were associated with youth prosocial behaviours, whereas parent's negative behaviours were associated with youth antisocial behaviours. Results provide preliminary quantitative evidence that youth athletes' perceptions of their parents' sideline behaviours predict their own on-field behaviours. As antisocial athlete behaviours were positively associated with parent negative behaviours, sport organisations should target, and ideally eliminate, negative parent behaviours. Conversely, to improve prosocial athlete behaviour, encouraging positive parent behaviours should be promoted., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (© 2024 McCabe, Tsiros and Crozier.)

Background: Various coping strategies have been shown to alleviate the negative effects of trauma, yet the significance of prosocial behaviour in this realm has been notably underexplored. The present study explored the hypothesis that engaging in prosocial behaviour mitigates the impacts of trauma by promoting a sense of competence and relatedness, post-traumatic growth (PTG), and reconstruction of meaning. Methods: Three consecutive studies were conducted with college students to compare differences in consequence of prosocial behaviours between a trauma group and a control group. Study 1 ( N  = 96) used self-reported experiences of traumatic vs non-traumatic events; Study 2 ( N  = 43) used exposure vs. no exposure to video of an earthquake; Study 3 ( N  = 20) used a randomized controlled trial (RCT) of a prosocial-themed intervention vs. no intervention. Outcomes in all studies were assessed by self-report questionnaires. Results: Trauma damaged participants' sense of competence and meaningfulness. Prosocial behaviour relieved the impact of trauma on meaning, specifically manifested in the individuals' sense of meaningfulness and their search for meaning. Group interventions with a prosocial theme (based on effect size results) reduced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and enhanced PTG in victims. The promoting effect on PTG persisted a month later, and its enhancing effect on meaning manifested with a delay. Conclusion: Prosocial behaviour can potentially serve as a beneficial strategy for individuals coping with trauma because it helps enhance meaning and promotes PTG in victims. This conclusion is supported by laboratory experiments and a tentative small-scale intervention study, which provide an innovative perspective for future trauma interventions.

Background: Prosocial behaviour can promote positive social interactions and it is a key skill in adolescence. People with emotional problems or psychiatric disorders, such as people with eating disorders might have impairments in prosocial behaviour, due to broader documented difficulties in underlying processes (e.g., mentalizing)., Methods: The aim of this study was to examine prosocial behaviour in adolescents with eating disorders compared to healthy controls, using a computerised behavioural task. Adolescents (N = 123) including patients with eating disorders (n = 61) and healthy adolescents (n = 62) played a four-player computerised Prosocial Cyberball Game with three pre-programmed avatar players. During the task, participants witnessed the exclusion of one of the players, and subsequently had the opportunity to compensate for this by throwing the ball more often to the excluded player. Throughout the game, participants rated the level of negative emotion in themselves and in the excluded player., Results: Patients made significantly fewer ball tosses towards the excluded player during the compensation round compared to healthy controls (large effect size). Patients reported a significantly smaller increase in negative emotion after witnessing the exclusion and a significantly smaller decrease in negative emotion following the compensation round (large effect sizes). Patients also estimated a smaller decrease in negative emotion in the excluded player following the compensation round (medium effect size). There were no significant associations between these outcomes and eating disorder psychopathology in patients., Conclusions: Compared to healthy adolescents, adolescent patients with eating disorders demonstrated less prosocial compensatory behaviour towards a computerised victim of social exclusion. In addition, they reported flatter negative emotion in themselves in response to witnessing and compensating for exclusion, and in the excluded player following compensation. If these findings are replicated, interventions to target these difficulties might contribute to improvements in social functioning in this patient group., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Emojis are prevalent in text-based communication, but the factors that influence our use and preference for emojis remains unclear. This study investigated how emoji use and preference could be explained by three factors; mental health, personality and prosocial behaviour. A questionnaire consisting of five measures was completed by 222 participants and both Pearson correlations and multiple regressions were conducted on the data. The results showed prosocial behaviour significantly related to frequency, attitudes and motivations towards emoji use as well as to positive emoji preference. Agreeableness related to the frequency of emoji use. Extraversion related to both positive and negative emoji preference while conscientiousness and emotional stability significantly related to negative emoji preference only. General mental health significantly related to negative emoji preference. The regressions found all of the factors identified in the correlations predicted emoji use and preference with the exception of extraversion. Further research is needed to explore how the impact of the emotions depicted by emojis on these factors and to investigate how emojis are used by people with specific mental health conditions., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

While attachment security is known to promote prosocial behaviour, a closer examination is needed to clarify the active mechanism in this relationship. We addressed this issue by examining the mediation effect of moral disengagement in two studies. Participants were assigned to the control priming group or the attachment security priming group. After the priming procedure, they completed the measurements of a sense of security, moral disengagement and prosocial behaviour. The results from both studies showed that compared with control priming, attachment security priming enhanced prosociality. Furthermore, mediation analysis showed that moral disengagement mediated the relationship between attachment security and prosociality. The present findings extend the understanding of the underlying mechanisms of attachment security and prosociality, and provide insights into the effectiveness of boosting attachment security in intervening in moral disengagement., (© 2023 International Union of Psychological Science.)

Adolescence brings with it a number of problems such as school violence. To reduce stress and increase the well-being of students, it is necessary to enhance certain skills such as prosocial behaviours, resilience, and creative self-efficacy. This cross-sectional study investigated the impact of prosocial behaviours and creative self-efficacy on school violence, stress, and resilience in adolescent students. A total of 743 students aged 14-19 years participated. The results revealed positive correlations between the dimensions of prosocial behaviours, creative self-efficacy, and resilience, and negative correlations with perceived stress. Differences were also observed in the relationship between prosocial behaviours, school violence, and stress. Mediation models indicated that creative self-efficacy acted as a mediator between prosocial behaviours and resilience. In addition, stress was found to moderate the relationship between prosocial behaviours and resilience. This study provides evidence on how prosocial behaviours, resilience, and creative self-efficacy act as a positive element in adolescence.

Prosocial behaviour can be defined as any voluntary action that is performed to benefit another individual. Despite accumulating evidence of the importance of environmental variables (e.g., socioeconomic status; SES), and individual characteristics (e.g., theory of mind - ToM - skills), in influencing prosocial behaviours in young children, it is unknown how these factors relate to the underlying motivations for prosocial behaviours. Accordingly, both extrinsically (sharing) and intrinsically (generosity)-guided prosocial behaviours are measured in this study. We explore the influences of SES and ToM skills on young children's sharing behaviour and generosity, while controlling their age, working memory and language skills. Sixty-six 4- to 6 year olds (M age  = 5.24 years, SD = 0.73) from diverse SES (measured by parental education level) and ethnic backgrounds in Singapore completed tasks assessing the ToM measures of false belief and appearance-reality understanding, working memory, language skills, generosity, and sharing behaviour. The results of hierarchical regression analyses demonstrate that the father's education level and children's appearance-reality understanding were significant predictors of sharing, after controlling for age, working memory, language skills, and the mother's education level. Children's appearance-reality understanding was the sole predictor of children's generosity. Our findings highlight the impact of children's ability to hold different views of reality and their family's education levels on the development of sharing and generosity in early childhood., (© 2023 British Psychological Society.)

Introduction: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), for assessing behavioural and emotional difficulties, has been used internationally as a screening measure for mental health problems. Our objective was to validate the existing (British) SDQ cut-points in a sample of Canadian children and youth, and develop new Canadian SDQ cut-points if needed., Methods: This study includes data from children and youth aged 6 to 17 years from the Canadian Health Measures Survey (n = 3435) and outpatient records from the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (n = 1075). The parent-reported SDQ data were collected. We adjusted the existing SDQ cut-points using a distributional and receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve approach. We subsequently calculated the sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic odds ratio of the existing and new SDQ clinical cut-points to determine whether the new cut-points had better clinical utility, using both analytic approaches., Results: Our data show differences in the screening effectiveness between the existing British and the Canadian-specific clinical cut-points. Specificity is maximized using the Canadian distributional cut-points, improving the likelihood of identifying true negative results. The total SDQ score met the threshold for clinical utility (diagnostic odds ratio > 20) using both the existing and new cut-points; however, the individual scales did not reach clinical utility threshold using either cut-points., Conclusions: Future Canadian SDQ research should consider the new cut-points derived from our study population and the existing British cut-points to allow for historical and international comparisons., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest related to this study.

Life-saving transfusions and numerous other medical treatments are enabled by a minority of people that donate blood. But why do some people repeatedly engage in such prosocial behaviour, especially when it is costly to themselves? This study examines to what extent social contagion within neighbourhoods - changing behaviour in response to the behaviour of others - affects repeated blood donation behaviour. We draw on longitudinal survey and register data from a representative sample of blood donors in the Netherlands from 2007 to 2014 (N = 15,090). Using a panel data model and an instrumental variable approach, we find that donors are positively affected by donations made by other donors living in their neighbourhood. This effect does not seem to be mediated by normative or informational social influence. Exploratory analysis further attributes this finding to social contagion within donor couples. Our study contributes to the literature on repeated blood donation behaviour, and can inform retention strategies of blood banks., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

The present study was designed to investigate the disadvantageous and advantageous inequity aversion of young and older adults in situations which allowed them to maximize or minimize payoff inequalities. Given the very limited evidence regarding an actual age-related effect on inequity aversion, the purpose of this study was to examine this question using an economic game, "the Give-and-Take Game", which is able to circumvent certain limitations of the Ultimatum Game, to evaluate inequity aversion (i.e., a same behaviour which can be induced by opposite motivations: prosocial vs. pro-self vs. altruistic orientations). In the "Give-and-Take Game", a sum of money was randomly distributed between the participant and a dummy player. These distributions created monetary inequalities, advantageous either for the participant (to examine advantageous inequity aversion) or for the other player (to examine disadvantageous inequity aversion). Different response options were proposed to the participants to either maximize or minimize payoff inequalities between the players. This procedure not only allowed to differentiate individual's profiles with more prosocial vs. pro-self vs. altruistic orientations, but also to examine age-related effects on these profiles. The results showed that older adults showed a more important pro-self orientation compared to their younger counterparts. They more frequently selected the options which maximized their own payoffs and were less averse to advantageous inequity compared to young adults. In contrast, young adults showed a similar level of advantageous and disadvantageous inequity aversion. Older adults focused on the economic and competitive dimension of the game, which may have motivated them to maximize their own payoffs. Conversely, young adults took into account the social dimension of the game, focusing on a fair monetary distribution., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper, (© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Previous studies show that the effects of (non-transparent) nudges can spill over to later similar decisions without nudges. In the current study, we aimed to determine whether such nudge temporal spillover effects are affected by making nudges transparent. The latter is recommended to (partly) mitigate ethical concerns surrounding the use of nudges. In two experiments, we nudged participants to complete a longer version of a survey. Participants were randomly assigned to either a control, a non-disclosed nudge (using a default to promote taking the longer survey) condition or a disclosed nudge (in which the use of the default nudge was explained) condition. In both Study 1 (N = 1270) and Study 2 (N = 1258) we observed a temporal spillover effect of the disclosed nudge, suggesting that transparency does not negatively affect the temporal spillover effect., (© 2023 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.)

Previous research on ability emotional intelligence (EI) has shown that EI positively contributes to different positive life outcomes. However, the role of EI abilities in prosocial behaviour (PSB) has not been sufficiently investigated. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationships between EI abilities measured by tests and self-reports, empathy and PSB in the student population. A total of N = 331 university students completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, two EI tests, and self-report measures of EI, cognitive empathy, emotional reactivity and PSB. Of all EI measures, only self-reports correlated with PSB. Cognitive and emotional empathy were also related to PSB. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that self-assessed EI, cognitive empathy and emotional reactivity were predictors of PSB. Cognitive empathy and emotional reactivity also mediated the relationship between self-assessed EI and PSB. The results showed that for the prediction of PSB, it is important how a person evaluates his emotional abilities, and not what the actual level of these abilities is. Furthermore, people with higher self-estimated EI behave prosocially more often because they experience empathy to a greater extent, both cognitively and emotionally.

Objective: Prior studies suggest that prosocial behaviour can lead to better mental and physical health. Yet little is known about whether engaging in prosocial behaviour contributes to reducing physical pain. The objective of this study is to investigate longitudinal associations of two prosocial behaviours, donating money to charity and/or volunteering time to an organisation, with pain., Methods: Data are from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Survey (UKHLS, approximate N = 48,000 individuals). Both prosocial behaviours were assessed in 2011 and pain was assessed annually through 2020, according to the extent to which it interfered with respondents' ability to do work. Using a prospective longitudinal study design, linear mixed models examined associations of each prosocial behaviour separately and both combined on pain interference across 10 years of follow-up adjusting for a broad range of covariates including demographics, initial health status, and depression., Results: People who did versus did not donate or volunteer reported lower pain interference over 10 years of follow-up (donating b = -0.059, p < 0.001; volunteering b = -0.086, p < 0.001). Individuals who donated more versus less money reported lower pain interference although volunteering more hours was not associated with lower pain interference. Finally, findings suggested that engaging in both donating and volunteering versus neither was associated with lower pain interference over follow-up., Conclusion: There is a longitudinal association between donating money to charity and/or volunteering time to an organisation with pain interference with work. Understanding factors that help to reduce pain is relevant for the design of public health policies., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Based on Duda's (2013) hierarchical and multidimensional conceptualization, this research integrates motivational climate dimensions from Achievement Goal Theory and Self-Determination Theory to investigate the constructs of empowering/disempowering motivational climates. We aimed to investigate the relationship between perceived coach-created motivational climate and prosocial-antisocial behaviours and determine whether moral disengagement mediated this relationship. 423 athletes completed self-reported questionnaires. The results showed that empowering motivational climate had a positive direct association with prosocial behaviour towards opponents/teammates. Disempowering motivational climate had a positive direct relationship with antisocial behaviour towards opponents/teammates. Also, disempowering motivational climate was indirectly related to antisocial behaviour towards teammates, antisocial behaviour towards opponents and prosocial behaviour towards opponents via moral disengagement. These findings suggest that athletes' perception of coach-created empowering motivational climate is likely to enhance athletes' prosocial behaviours, whereas athletes' perception of coach-created disempowering motivational climate may result in their higher antisocial behaviours which is mediated by moral disengagement. The findings emphasize the role of perceived coach-created motivational climates in athletes' moral behaviours, provide useful information on the mediating role of moral disengagement in this relationship and suggest practical implications for sports coaches, sports psychologists and sport executives who aim to create a positive sports environment for athletes.

This research examines the proximate evaluative mechanisms underlying prosocial partner choice-based reciprocity. Across four studies we presented 855 university undergraduates (online for course credit) and 76 4- to 6-year-olds (offline at a university laboratory) with vignettes describing prosocial, social and non-social characters, and asked participants about their person preferences in prosocial, social and general contexts. Adults demonstrated sophisticated appraisals, coordinating between relevant trait and contextual cues to make selections. Adults were particularly attentive to prosocial cues in costly conditions, suggesting that they were using dispositional attributions to make their selections. By contrast, children were largely unable to integrate trait and contextual cues in determining their partner preferences, instead displaying valenced preferences for non-social cues, suggesting the use of affective tagging. Together, these studies demonstrate that the mechanisms underlying prosocial, partner choice-based reciprocity are not early emerging and stable but show considerable development over the lifespan., Competing Interests: We declare we have no competing interests., (© 2023 The Authors.)

Individuals diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) and social phobia (SP) have difficulties in social interactions. It is unknown, however, whether such difficulties prevent them from helping others, thereby depriving them of the natural benefits of helping, such as receiving gratitude. Using event sampling methodology (ESM), individuals (MDD, n = 118; SP, n = 47; and control group, n = 119) responded to questions about the frequency of helping, in total at 5333 time points, and their well-being. Contrary to our hypothesis, individuals in the MDD, SP and control group did not differ in their helping frequency. Results did show an association between helping and well-being, such that helping is related to well-being and well-being to helping. Understanding the complex relation of helping others and well-being and how this might be used during therapy and prevention programmes are discussed., (© 2022 British Psychological Society.)

The present study aims to disentangle the state and trait components of prosocial goal realisation, defined as a set of personally meaningful prosocial actions undertaken in natural settings. Based on a diary study with seven daily measurements from 180 participants (a total of 1005 data points), we performed temporal variance decomposition using the STARTS model. The observed individual scores are explained by: ST-a common trait factor, capturing variance stable across days; ART-a unique autoregressive trait factor, capturing variance changing from 1 day to the next; and S-state factors, a series of uncorrelated factors reflecting occasion-specific variance. The results demonstrate the relative stability of prosocial goal realisation, extending the knowledge on the state/trait distinction in actual prosocial behaviour., (© 2022 International Union of Psychological Science.)

Every day we constantly observe other people receiving rewards. Theoretical accounts posit that vicarious reward processing might be linked to people's sensitivity to internal body states (interoception) and facilitates a tendency to act prosocially. However, the neural processes underlying the links between vicarious reward processing, interoception, and prosocial behaviour are poorly understood. Previous research has linked vicarious reward processing to the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACCg) and the anterior insula (AI). Can we predict someone's propensity to be prosocial or to be aware of interoceptive signals from variability in how the ACCg and AI process rewards? Here, participants monitored rewards being delivered to themselves or a stranger during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Later, they performed a task measuring their willingness to exert effort to obtain rewards for others, and a task measuring their propensity to be aware and use interoceptive respiratory signals. Using multivariate similarity analysis, we show that people's willingness to be prosocial is predicted by greater similarity between self and other representations in the ACCg. Moreover, greater dissimilarity in self-other representations in the AI is linked to interoceptive propensity. These findings highlight that vicarious reward is linked to bodily signals in AI, and foster prosocial tendencies through the ACCg., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare no competing interest., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Introduction: Shy children, who tend to feel anxious around others and withdraw from social interactions, are found to be less prosocial than their not-shy peers in some studies, though not in others. To examine the contexts in which shy children may be more or less likely to engage in prosocial behaviour, we compared children's willingness and ability to intervene during in-person tasks that differed in social engagement demands and complexity , factors that have been conflated in past research., Methods: We presented 42, 3.5- to 4.5-year-old children with prosocial problems that varied, in a 2 x 2 within-subjects design, by the type of intervention required (i.e., simple helping or complex comforting) and the source of the problem (i.e., social: within the experimenter's personal space; or object: a target object distanced from her)., Results: Most of the children acted prosocially, with little prompting, in the two helping tasks and in the object-centered comforting task. In contrast, fewer than half of the children acted prosocially in the social-centered comforting task. Shyer children were not less likely to intervene in any of the four tasks, but they were slower to intervene in the object-centred comforting task, in which the experimenter was upset about a broken toy., Discussion: Thus, providing social-centered comfort to a recently-introduced adult is challenging for young children, regardless of shyness, though shy children do show hesitancy with object-centered comforting. Further, these findings provide insights into the methodological challenges of disentangling children's prosocial motivation and understanding, and we propose solutions to these challenges for future research., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023 Karasewich, Hines, Pinheiro, Buchenrieder, Dunfield and Kuhlmeier.)

Evidence on the relationship between psychosocial well-being and physical activity (PA) is insufficient, especially in young adults between 18 and 29 years. Identifying protective factors for psychosocial well-being as well as factors that may promote PA behaviour in this specific age group is crucial.The aim of the present study was to explore the association between self-reported leisure time physical activity (LTPA) and a number of measures of psychosocial well-being in a large sample of Finnish young men. The sample used for this study is based on registers of the Finnish Defence Forces and consist of questionnaire-based data collected from 159,776 young healthy men (18-29 years, mean age 19 years) who started their military service during the period from 2015 to 2021. Sum scores were calculated for self-esteem and prosocial behaviour. Physical activity, number of friends and the relationship with the parents were each measured with a single question. Unadjusted and adjusted (education, financial situation of the family, family structure) logistic regression models were calculated.A multinominal logistic regression analysis showed that a higher level of LTPA was associated with a higher level of both prosocial behaviour (OR 6.12, 95% CI 5.88-6.36) and self-esteem (OR 4.41 95% CI 4.28-4.54). Further, LTPA had a positive relationship with good social relations, both with peers and parents. The odds ratio for participation in any LTPA weekly was higher (OR 2.74; CI 2.27-3.20) among those who had a close and trustworthy relationship with their parents compared to those men with more challenging relationships with their parents (OR 1.77; CI 1.46-2.14). An inactive lifestyle (PA less than once a week) seemed to be most common among men with no friends. About one third (31%) of men with no friends reported to engage in LTPA less than once a week, while only 10% of men with very many good friends reported to engage in similarly inactive LTPA behaviour.LTPA seems to be positively associated with self-esteem, prosocial behaviour and good social relations among young adult men. Actions aimed at promoting LTPA may have a positive impact on psychosocial well-being among young men, or vice versa. The relationship between PA and psychosocial well-being is complex and interrelated., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Adolescent mental health is a global concern, however, time trends and the COVID-19-related restrictions vary across countries. This study examined changes in adolescent mental health and substance use in Russia between 2002, 2015 and during the pandemic in 2021., Methods: Cross-sectional school-based surveys of 12- to 18-year-olds were carried out in a Siberian city in 2002 (N = 713), 2015 (N = 840) and 2021 (N = 721) using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, data on tobacco, alcohol and drug use and socio-demographic information. We examined the effect of cohort, gender, family composition and parental occupation on mental health and substance use., Results: There were increases in emotional symptoms and internalising problems (B = 0.93, p < .001) and decreases in substance use over 19 years (B = -.73, p < .001). Changes in adolescent mental health and substance use were substantial from 2002 to 2015 and nonsignificant from 2015 to 2021. Increases in mental health problems were evident only among girls; a decrease in alcohol use was larger among boys. Family composition and parental occupation did not account for these changes., Conclusions: These results suggest that the mental health of Russian adolescent girls has worsened in the 21st century; the gender gap in mental health has widened; the gender gap in alcohol use was reversed in 2021. The findings highlight the need for research into gender-specific factors and for effective interventions. The lack of changes in Russian adolescent mental health and substance use from 2015 to during the pandemic in 2021 suggests successful coping; however, more research is needed., (© 2022 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.)

Human cooperation varies both across and within societies, and developmental studies can inform our understanding of the sources of both kinds of variation. One key candidate for explaining within-society variation in cooperative behaviour is gender, but we know little about whether gender differences in cooperation take root early in ontogeny or emerge similarly across diverse societies. Here, we explore two existing cross-cultural datasets of 4- to 15-year-old children's preferences for equality in experimental tasks measuring prosociality (14 societies) and fairness (seven societies), and we look for evidence of (i) widespread gender differences in the development of cooperation, and (ii) substantial societal variation in gender differences. This cross-cultural approach is crucial for revealing universal human gender differences in the development of cooperation, and it helps answer recent calls for greater cultural diversity in the study of human development. We find that gender has little impact on the development of prosociality and fairness within these datasets, and we do not find much evidence for substantial societal variation in gender differences. We discuss the implications of these findings for our knowledge about the nature and origin of gender differences in cooperation, and for future research attempting to study human development using diverse cultural samples. This article is part of the theme issue 'Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives'.

Background: Sexual violence is a public health issue among adolescents globally but remains understudied in Sub-Saharan Africa. Objective: The present study focused on the association of cumulative exposure to different types of sexual violence with mental and physical health problems and prosocial behaviour. Method: We conducted a survey with a regionally representative sample of both in-school and out-of-school adolescents, aged 13-17 years, living in south-western Nigeria. Self-reported exposure to sexual violence, behavioural problems, physical complaints, and prosocial behaviour were assessed. Results: About three quarters of the participants reported the experience of sexual violence (74.6%). Multiple regression models revealed that the more types of sexual violence an individual reported, the more mental and physical health problems, and the fewer prosocial behaviours they reported when controlling for other forms of violence exposure. Latent class analysis revealed three severity classes of sexual violence. Symptoms of mental and physical health indicators were significantly higher as exposure increased by group whereas prosocial behaviours were non-significantly fewer in the opposite direction. Conclusion: This study revealed a consistent and unique relation between sexual violence exposure and negative health outcomes among adolescents. Further research on sexual violence in Sub-Saharan Africa and its associations is needed.

The Movement Control Order (MCO) enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly altered the social life and behaviour of the Malaysian population. Because the society is facing huge social and economic challenges that need individuals to work together to solve, prosocial behaviour is regarded as one of the most important social determinants. Because it is related with individual and societal benefits, participating in prosocial activities may be a major protective factor during times of global crisis. Rather than focusing only on medical and psychiatric paradigms, perhaps all that is necessary to overcome the COVID-19 risks is for individuals to make personal sacrifices for the sake of others. In reality, a large number of initiatives proven to be beneficial in decreasing viral transmission include a trade-off between individual and collective interests. Given its crucial importance, the purpose of this concept paper is to provide some insight into prosocial behaviour during the COVID-19 period. Understanding prosocial behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic is crucial because it may assist in the establishment of a post-COVID society and provide useful strategies for coping with future crises.

Prosocial behaviour is fundamental for our social togetherness. Yet, how acute stress, a common everyday occurrence, influences our behaviours towards one another is still unclear. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to quantitatively investigate the effect of experimentally induced acute stress on prosocial behaviours in economic games. We also probed possible moderators to explain differences in findings. We included 23 studies, 77 individual effects, and 2197 participants in the meta-analysis and found no overall differences between stress and control groups in prosocial behaviours (SMD=-0.06), or costly punishment (SMD=-0.11). There were no moderating effects of stressor type, participants' gender/sex, or the delay from the stressor to the task. However, the potential recipient of the donated money (person vs. charity) and the complexity of the decision did reveal some differences under stress. The results of this meta-analysis suggest that there is currently no clear answer to the question of whether or not stress increases or decreases prosociality. We highlight important open questions and suggest where the field should go next., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest The authors have no financial or other conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

What is the temporal course of gratitude and indebtedness and how do these feelings influence helping in the context of reciprocity? In an online-game tapping real-life behaviour, Study 1 ( N  = 106) finds that while gratitude towards a benefactor remains elevated after an opportunity to reciprocate, indebtedness declines along with helping. Yet, indebtedness rather than gratitude better predicts real-life helping of a benefactor. Using a vignette-based experiment, Study 2 ( N  = 217) finds that after reciprocation indebtedness and likelihood of helping a benefactor reset to a baseline level while gratitude endures. Furthermore, the decrease in helping after reciprocation is better explained by indebtedness than by gratitude. Study 3 ( N  = 217) assessed the unique influences of gratitude and indebtedness on helping by comparing contexts in which gratitude is at a baseline level but indebtedness is elevated (e.g. before a monetary payment for a service received) to contexts in which indebtedness is at a baseline level but gratitude is elevated (e.g. after reciprocation of benefits freely given by a friend). People are more likely to help in the former compared to latter context, and this difference is better explained by indebtedness rather than by gratitude. We discuss the interrelated and understudied relationships between gratitude, indebtedness, and reciprocity.

Professional residential care providers face several stressors due to the burden of caring for dependent people. This burden may affect the way in which care is carried out. Resilience, as personal strengths, may help them to be more effective in their workplace and in their interaction with patients, and this may be related to the development of participation skills and prosocial behaviours. A total of 125 professional's caregivers from Spain responded to the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale Resilience Scale and the PB new Prosocial Conduct Scale over the years 2018 and 2019. We checked the predictive power of resilience as well as other predictors (sex, type of contract and total months worked in professional caregiving) on prosocial behaviour in caregivers' professionals with multiple regression analysis. Results showed resilience as the only significant predictor, explaining 21% of the variance in prosocial behaviour (R 2  = 0.21, F(5, 115) = 6.16, p < 0.001). This indicates that resilience is a variable prediction of prosocial behaviour in health and social professionals. Resilience gets in the individual the capacity to be attentive to give answers in certain situations, being a predictor of great relevance of the prosocial behaviours. Thus, it is necessary to deepen the research on professional caregivers to be able to train and empower them in skills that improve their quality of life and by strength, that of dependent people., (© 2022 The Authors. Health and Social Care in the Community published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Identity fusion is a visceral feeling of oneness that predicts extreme behaviour on behalf of the target of fusion. We propose that strongly fused individuals are characterized by feelings of visceral responsibility towards such target - unconditional, instinctive, and impulsive drive to care, protect and promote its well-being and interests - that motivates them to self-sacrifice. Two studies offered initial support when the target of fusion is an individual or a group (Studies 1a-1b). A final study added causal evidence that strongly fused learning that most ingroup members did not feel visceral responsibility towards the group expressed less willingness to self-sacrifice than those learning that ingroup members display high levels of visceral responsibility (Study 2). These findings offer novel evidence for the mechanisms underlying the effects of fusion on extreme behaviour on behalf of the target of fusion and the attenuation of its consequences., (© 2022 The Authors. British Journal of Social Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.)

This article looks through a critical media lens at mediated effects and ethical concerns of virtual reality (VR) applications that explore personal and social issues through embodiment and storytelling. In recent years, the press, immersive media practitioners and researchers have promoted the potential of virtual reality storytelling to foster empathy. This research offers an interdisciplinary narrative review, with an evidence-based approach to challenge the assumptions that VR films elicit empathy in the participant-what I refer to as the VR-empathy model. A review of literature from the fields of psychology, computer science, embodiment, medicine, and virtual reality was carried out to question and counter these claims through case studies of both fiction and non-fiction VR experiences. The results reveal that there is little empirical evidence of a correlation between VR exposure and an increase in empathy that motivates pro-social behavior, and a lack of research covering VR films exposure eliciting empathy. Furthermore, the results show an alarming lack of research into the long-term effects of VR films and other VR immersive experiences. This contribution aims to understand and demystify the current "empathy machine" rhetoric and calls for more rigorous, scientific research that can authenticate future claims and systemize ethical best practices., Competing Interests: The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2022 Sora-Domenjó.)