Relationships between adolescent prosocial problem-solving strategies, prosocial behaviour, and social acceptance

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between adolescents’ prosocial problem-solving strategies and prosocial behaviour, and their associations with social acceptance among their peers. Age- and gender-related variance was also examined. The subjects were 777 14-year-old adolescents (381 girls and 396 boys) and 877 17-year-olds (464 girls and 413 boys). Prosocial problem-solving strategies were measured by means of a self-rating questionnaire, while prosocial behaviour and social acceptance were evaluated in terms of the dimensions of social popularity and rejection as well as the classification of adolescents into popular, rejected, neglected, controversial, and average status groups, on the basis of peer nominations. The results showed that prosocial problem-solving strategies and prosocial behaviour were only minimally related, but both predicted social acceptance among peers. The rejected adolescents had low levels and the controversial adolescents high levels of both prosocial strategies and behaviour, while the popular and neglected adolescents did not differ from the average ones in terms of strategies, but they did in their behaviour. The popular adolescents had a high level, and the neglected adolescents a low level of prosocial behaviour. As a dimension, social popularity correlated positively and rejection negatively with prosocial behaviour but not with strategies. Analysis of gender and age differences revealed that the girls and the 14-year-olds achieved higher scores on both prosocial strategies and behaviour than the boys or the 17-year-olds. The results extend our knowledge of adolescent social functioning.

Preferencia y popularidad: patrones diferenciales por género en los correlatos del alto estatus

“…Así, aunque las diferencias de género en algunas de estas dimensiones están muy establecidas, como sería el caso de la empatía, la ayuda, la cooperación o la agresión directa, tanto específicamente en reputación (Muñoz Tinoco, Jimé-nez-Lagares y Moreno, 2008; vysniauskyte-rimkiene y kardelis, 2005), como a través de trabajos con un enfoque más amplio de diferencias de género en conducta social (Aunola, Stattin y Nurmi, 2000;Galambos,2004;Lindeman, Harakka y keltikangas-Järvinen,1997;Lemos, Fidalgo, Calvo y Menéndez, 1992;Maccoby,2004, Pakaslahti, karjalainen, y keltikangas-Järvinen, 2006, no sólo mantienen correlaciones significativas en ambos géneros, sino que el tamaño de la correlación es estadísticamente similar para ambos sexos, como indican los contrastes z utilizados. Las excepciones, con respecto a estos últimos contrastes, de las variables tristeza y soledad con correlaciones negativas significativamente mayores en chicas merecerían, sin duda, análisis posteriores que incidan en las relaciones entre el género y la dimensión de aislamiento.…”

Different patterns of behavioural and emotional difficulties through adolescence: The influence of prosocial skills

“…Similarly, patterns of withdrawal, social isolation, and rejection of companions predict an increase in depressive symptoms (Galambos & Krahn, 2008). Different researches have explored the links between isolated social skills and children's psychological adjustment (Pakaslahti, Karjalainen, & Keltikangas-Jarvinen, 2002;Petrides, Frederickson, & Furnham, 2004). Furthermore, the establishment of appropriate social relations would appear to play an important role in the reduction and cessation of externalizing behavior (Barker & Galambos, 2007;Giordano, Manning, & Longmore, 2005;Halpern-Meekin, Manning, Giordano, & Longmore, 2013).…”

A organização do autoconceito: análise da estrutura hierárquica em adolescentes

“…Este resultado sugere que, no decurso da adolescência, a percepção da adequação do próprio comportamento está relacionada, por um lado, com as competências académicas (a que não será alheio o facto de, muitas vezes, o comportamento dos alunos ser associado ao rendimento académico e às notas que obtêm) e, por outro, ao Autoconceito Social, sugerindo que o julgamento de adequação do comportamento está também dependente do julgamento dos pares. Este resultado é, aliás, consonante com a investigação que relaciona a aceitação social com o tipo de comportamentos evidenciados pelos adolescentes (Keltikangas-Jarvinen, 2002;Lopez-Williams et al, 2005;Pakaslahti, Karjalainen, & Keltikangas-Jarvinen, 2002).…”