Prosocial Behaviors of Five-Year-Old Children in Sixteen Learning/Activity Centers

What Nice Things Do Boys and Girls Do? Preschoolers' Perspectives of Peers' Behaviors at School and at Home

“…Based on a content analysis of children's responses and a review of the relevant literature, including studies of preschoolers' prosocial behavior (e.g., Babcock et al, 1995) and older children's and parents' conceptions of prosocial behavior (Greener &Crick, 1999, andBergin et al, 1995, respectively), a coding scheme was developed in which five different behavior categories were described. As depicted in Table 1, the behaviors included sharing, helping, compliance, activity with others (i.e., social activity), and self-directed activity.…”

“…For example, more than half of the studies of prosocial behavior reviewed by Radke-Yarrow et al (1983) included tasks in which individuals were asked to give away material goods to benefit others, ignoring other applicable behavior. When Babcock, Hartle, and Lamme (1995) employed a broader definition of this construct in coding the prosocial behaviors of preschool children in a school setting, they found proximity seeking (e.g., inviting another child to participate in play) to be a common prosocial activity among young children. Although previous research on prosocial behavior has not placed emphasis on proximity seeking or other related behaviors, it is important to recognize that these activities may best reflect children's own attempts to act in prosocial ways.…”

Do Reinforcement and Induction Increase Prosocial Behavior? Results of a Teacher-Based Intervention in Preschools

“…Bergin, Bergin, and French (1995) identified these categories of behavior as particularly salient in 2-to 5-year-olds, using a prototype approach in naturalistic settings. These five prosocial behaviors overlap with behaviors in other studies of young children using time sampling observations (Babcock, Hartle, & Lamme, 1995). To operationalize each of the five prosocial behaviors, the investigator spent four hours in a child care setting to observe prosocial behavior.…”

Getting along: How teachers can support children's peer relationships

“…Children have more opportunities for developing positive peer relationships in well-defined spaces for four children, than if teachers call children individually to come to the art center, for example. A well stocked writing center with a table and four chairs can be a great place for children to initiate or maintain peer relationships by creating letters and presents to give to new and old friends (Babcock, Hartle, & Lamme, 1995).…”