Socialization of Early Prosocial Behavior: Parents’ Talk About Emotions is Associated With Sharing and Helping in Toddlers

Abstract

What role does socialization play in the origins of prosocial behavior? We examined one potential socialization mechanism, parents’ discourse about others’ emotions with very young children in whom prosocial behavior is still nascent. Two studies are reported, one of sharing in 18- and 24-month-olds (n = 29), and one of instrumental and empathy-based helping in 18- and 30-month-olds (n = 62). In both studies, parents read age-appropriate picture books to their children and the content and structure of their emotion-related and internal state discourse were coded. Results showed that children who helped and shared more quickly and more often, especially in tasks that required more complex emotion understanding, had parents who more often asked them to label and explain the emotions depicted in the books. Moreover, it was parents’ elicitation of children’s talk about emotions rather than parents’ own production of emotion labels and explanations that explained children’s prosocial behavior, even after controlling for age. Thus, it is the quality, not the quantity, of parents’ talk about emotions with their toddlers that matters for early prosocial behavior.

Neural correlates of prosocial behavior in infancy: Different neurophysiological mechanisms support the emergence of helping and comforting

“…This study provides some evidence that instrumental helping and emotional helping do not develop in parallel, and is in line with the view that partly different mechanisms might subserve these early forms of prosocial action. Moreover, in a recent study Brownell et al (2012) showed that the quality of parents' talk about emotions had an impact on children's empathic responding and sharing, but not on their instrumental helping behavior. Finally, Eisenberg et al (1999) conducted a longitudinal study to examine consistency in the development of prosocial behavior from the preschool years to adulthood.…”

Here, there and everywhere: emotion and mental state talk in different social contexts predicts empathic helping in toddlers

“…Emotion understanding, given its robust associations with EMST, is one logical pathway (de Rosnay and Hughes, 2006; Thompson, 2006). Greater emotion understanding promoted by frequent parental EMST may help children infer the other's need and generate an appropriate prosocial response in a complex, affectively charged situation (Denham et al, 2007; Ensor et al, 2011; Brownell et al, 2013). Emotion and mental state discourse may also operate on children's prosocial motivations by facilitating empathy inductions, leading to internalized moral dispositions that underlie prosocial behavior toward those in distress (Hoffman, 2000).…”

The multidimensional nature of early prosocial behavior: a motivational perspective

“…One set of studies found that emotion talk, particularly the elicitation of emotion words [12], was correlated with behavioral assessments of young children's sharing and emotion-based helping, but not with instrumental helping [13]. Further research focused on specific social-cognitive skills and social experiences.…”