Ricerc@Sapienza

Prosocial behavior refers to a wide range of voluntary actions intended to benefit other persons. High levels of prosocial behavior in early childhood have been linked to social acceptance, peer popularity, lower levels of externalizing problems, and academic success. Thus, an important issue for researchers in developmental psychology is to establish a set of concurrent and longitudinal predictors of children's and adolescents' prosocial behavior. The present cross-sectional project aims to contribute to this field by examining the direct and indirect effects of empathy, theory-of-mind and receptive language on prosocial behavior in a sample of primary school children between 8 and 11 years of age. In addition, a specific aim will be to determine whether the positive or negative influences of the four social-cognitive measures differ between boys and girls. Empathy (differentiated into perspective taking and empathic concern) and prosocial behavior will be measured via self-report questionnaires, whereas theory-of-mind and receptive language will be assessed through age-appropriate, standardized tasks. The results will have important consequences for the development of effective intervention programs focused on the enhancement of prosocial orientation in primary-school children with or without behavior problems. Furthermore, they will help to uncover patterns of development specific to boys and girls.