title: The development of prosociality from adolescence to early adulthood: the role of effortful control.
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.
  
  
  METHODS
  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.
authors.affiliation: Sapienza University of Rome, Via dei Marsi 78, 00185 Roma, Italy. paula.luengo@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Bernadette P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Luengo Kanacri
authors.forename: Concetta
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pastorelli
authors.forename: Nancy
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Eisenberg
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zuffianò
authors.forename: Gian Vittorio
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: Caprara
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D041923:Adolescent Development; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires