Promoting individuals' mental well-being is gaining increasing attention in the political agenda in Italy and Europe, especially nowadays when the long-lasting psychosocial effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are still unclear. Although a large body of research stressed the importance of self-oriented psychological characteristics to improve people's mental well-being (e.g., self-awareness, intrapersonal emotion regulation, emotional stability), some authors highlighted the importance of individuals' prosociality, an other-oriented tendency to behave in favor of others, as a protective factor for their well-being. Using both cross-sectional data and intensive longitudinal data (daily and weekly diaries), the present study aims to offer an ecologically valid evaluation of the benefits of prosociality on mental well-being among young adults (roughly ages 20-39), a developmental group partly under-investigated in the prosociality literature. More in detail, we will seek to clarify: (1) the consistency of the effects of prosociality on several facets of mental well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, happiness, etc.); (2) the extent to which these expected beneficial effects could be attributed to stable dispositional differences (trait-like) and/or occasion-specific peaks in prosociality (state-like); and (3) the lasting nature of such effects as a function of the time-lag considered (i.e., in synchronous, day-to-day, and week-to-week). The practical implications of this project could be important for those psychologists, educators, and practitioners working to develop intervention strategies to sustain the well-being of young adults (e.g., university students) in their everyday life.
A consistent amount of research has shown the beneficial effects of behaving prosocially for the individual's wellbeing throughout the lifespan (see Hui et al., 2020), such as better academic performance (e.g., Caprara et al., 2000) and lower externalizing/internalizing problems (e.g., Nantel-Vivier et al., 2014) during childhood and adolescence; higher subjective well-being (e.g., Zuffianò et al., 2018) during adulthood; better physical health (e.g., Van Willigen, 2000) and a generally active lifestyle during elderly years (see Midlarsky et al., 2015). Yet, several questions about the beneficial effects of PRO on MWB still remain unexplored and we aim to address them (at least in part) through this research project.
First, it is unclear the extent to which these positive effects could be attributed to stable dispositional differences in PRO and/or momentary peaks in prosocial actions. Using an ecologically valid approach (daily and weekly diaries), this project will help advance the prosociality literature by studying the positive effects of PRO as they unravel in the everyday life of young adults. Although some previous studies adopted an ecological framework based on ILD (e.g., Snippe et al., 2017), they did not properly distinguish the level at which the effect of PRO on MWB was operating (i.e., trait-level versus state-level). We believe that this is a very important aspect since the possible presence of positive effects at the state-level can directly inform the implementation of intervention actions to sustain young adults¿ MWB (e.g., the possibility of joining volunteering programs at the university).
Second, previous works did not model the effects at the latent level (i.e., error-free), thereby offering an estimate of the reciprocal effects between PRO and MWB (Snippe et al., 2017) that was likely attenuated by the presence of the measurement error. In our study, we aim to offer a more accurate estimate of the effects by using cutting-edge data analysis techniques (RI-CLPM and DSEM) that consider both trait- and state-like relationships while simultaneously controlling for the unreliability of the instruments.
Third, many studies investigated the effect of PRO on a specific dimension of MWB at a time (e.g., PRO and positive affect; Snippe et al., 2017). In the present study, instead, we aim to offer a more systematic analysis of the effects of PRO on several facets of MWB such as life satisfaction, hedonic balance, happiness, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, social inclusion, etc. Hence, this study can help identify which dimensions of MWB are more sensitive to the effects of behaving prosocially.
Fourth, to the best of our knowledge, no previous studies have investigated whether the strength of the effect of PRO on MWB could vary based on different time lags. In the present study, we aim to partially address this question by examining whether the effects of PRO on MWB could last from day to day, from week to week, or only simultaneously (i.e., at the same time point). Since previous studies already showed the presence of positive effects of PRO on MWB with a 6-hour time lag (Snippe et al., 2017), our study can help clarify whether the beneficial effects of PRO could be extended up to 24 hours and/or a week.
Fifth, although the study of PRO has benefitted over the last 20 years from the contributions of different branches of psychology with a large volume of empirical research produced across various developmental phases, young adulthood appeared to be slightly less investigated compared to both infancy/childhood and adulthood/elderly (Zuffianò et al., forthcoming). Hence, by focusing on young adults, this study can shed light on the potential beneficial effects of PRO in a developmental group that deserves stronger attention, especially since young adults face important challenges (e.g., financial independence) that are likely to be exacerbated by the current pandemic.
Finally, from a practical perspective, the results from this project can inform the design of developmentally tailored intervention strategies aimed to sustain PRO and MWB in everyday life.