title: Socio-cognitive influences on the domain-specificity of prosocial behavior in the second year.
abstract: The main aim of this study was to explain the domain-specificity of early prosocial behavior in different domains (i.e., helping, comforting, and cooperation) by simultaneously assessing specific socio-cognitive factors (i.e., self-other-differentiation and joint attentional skills) that were hypothesized to be differentially related to the three domains of prosocial behavior. Based on a longitudinal study design, observational and parental report data were collected when toddlers (N=42) from German urban middle-class families were 15 and 18 months of age. At 15 months, regression analyses indicated differential relationships between socio-cognitive development and prosocial behavior (i.e., joint attentional skills were positively related with helping and, as hypothesized, both joint attentional skills and self-other differentiation were positively related with cooperation). Furthermore, self-other differentiation at 15 months predicted increases in coordination between 15 and 18 months. Finally, between 15 and 18 months, parental reports of socio-cognitive measures increased significantly while behavioral measures of both socio-cognitive concepts and prosocial behavior were stable across time. In sum, these results support the theoretical assumption of domain-specific socio-cognitive influences that constitute differential development of prosocial behavior. Implications of the results for theory and future studies are discussed from different perspectives with a focus on an interference interpretation calling for the integration of socialization approaches to the study of prosocial development.
authors.affiliation: University of Münster, Münster, Germany. Electronic address: j.kaertner@uni-muenster.de.
authors.forename: Joscha
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kärtner
authors.affiliation: University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Nils
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Schuhmacher
authors.affiliation: Free University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Jenny
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Collard
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D012919:Social Behavior; D012951:Socialization
keywords: Cooperation; Domain-specificity; Joint attentional skills; Prosocial behavior; Self-other differentiation