Social psychology and personality theorists have proposed that our understanding of prosocial behavior will be enhanced by examining the interplay of traits and motives. Th e present study was designed to test several pathways by which agreeableness, extraversion, and prosocial value motivation to volunteer infl uence volunteerism. A sample of 796 college students completed measures of the Big Five traits, prosocial value motivation to volunteer, and volunteering. Results of path analyses showed that prosocial value motivation to volunteer partially mediated the relations between agreeableness and extraversion, and volunteering. Furthermore, as agreeableness decreased, extraversion was more strongly related to prosocial value motivation to volunteer. In contrast, there was no support for the pathway in which extraversion and prosocial value motivation to volunteer jointly aff ect volunteering. Discussion focuses on the utility of examining the links among traits and motives in predicting volunteering.

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Empirical studies on children's peer relationships document a number of gender-and age-related patterns in their friendships. One of the most recorded patterns in peer relationships is the tendency to prefer friends of the same sex (e.g., Belle, 1989; Feiring & Lewis, 1987; Pitcher & Schultz, 1983). This phenomenon has been observed in children as young as 33 months (Jacklin & Maccoby, 1978), and appears to increase in intensity with age until middle child

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This study examines the role of immediate social companions in the prosocial behaviors of children from two cultural communities from the USA and the Philippines. Materials for this study comprised behavioral observations drawn from the Six Cultures Study-with 612 five-minute observations of 23 children (12 girls, 11 boys) from Orchard Town, MA, and 570 observations of 24 children (12 girls, 12 boys) from Tarong, Philippines, ranging in age from 3 to 11 years. Data were coded for instances of prosocial behaviors, as well as characteristics of social companions (age and relationship to actor). Results revealed several interesting findings. First, frequency of children's behaviors varied as a function of the age of their social companions. Children generally directed the highest number of prosocial behaviors towards infants and toddlers, except for younger children's prosocial behaviors towards relatives which were directed mostly towards adults. Second, frequency of prosocial behaviors varied as a function of kinship, but differently for the community groups. Tarong children were generally more prosocial towards relatives, while Orchard Town children showed more prosocial behaviors towards non-relatives. Results highlight the role of immediate contexts in prosocial behaviors of children, and the value of using cross-cultural methodology to examine contextual factors in developmental processes.