Antecedents of prosocial behaviors in preschoolers

유아의 친사회적 행동에 영향을 미치는 선행 요인

Children's sex, temperament, and empathy were studied as antecedents of preschoolers' prosocial development. Eighty eight 5-, and 6-year-old children, 41 boys and 47 girls, were sampled in two kindergartens. Children's naturally occurring prosocial behaviors were videotaped in their classrooms for 21 minutes in 3 days. Teachers rated the children's prosocial tendency using a questionnaire. Empathy was measured individually with a picture/story measure, and mothers provided information on children's temperament using a questionnaire. The two measures of preschoolers' prosocial behaviors, teacher ratings and free play observations, were moderately related. Girls were more prosocial in terms of helping/sharing/cooperation in both teacher-ratings and free-play observations. Preschoolers' adjustability was moderately related to the prosocial behaviors of children in both teacher-ratings and observations. Boys' verbal empathy was related to the observed prosocial behaviors.