Infant helping in the first year of life: Parents' recollection of infants' earliest prosocial behaviors.
Prosocial behavior is widely thought to emerge early in the second year of life. This paper presents evidence that helping emerges early in the first year of life. Parents of 80 children asked to recollect the earliest instance of their child helping recalled help in two contexts: chores (e.g., cleaning up) and care and self-care (e.g., feeding and dressing). A subset of parents recalled helping even before eight months of age, most often in the context of self-care tasks. The presence of helping this early in the lifespan is situated in recent research, and its implications for current theories of early prosocial behavior are discussed.
School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, 136 Jean Jacques Lussier, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada. Electronic address: shammond@uottawa.ca.
Stuart I
SI
Hammond
School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, 136 Jean Jacques Lussier, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada. Electronic address: ealjb098@uottawa.ca.
Elizabeth
E
Al-Jbouri
School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, 136 Jean Jacques Lussier, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada. Electronic address: vedwa104@uottawa.ca.
Victoria
V
Edwards
Ryerson School of Early Childhood Studies, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, ON, M5 B 2K3, Canada. Electronic address: lfelt026@uottawa.ca.
Laura E
LE
Feltham
D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D018730:Infant Behavior; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D010290:Parents; D012919:Social Behavior; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Infancy; Prosocial behavior; Self-care