Nahide Gungordu

The current study aimed to develop and examine the psychometric properties of the Children’s Prosocial Behaviors in a Preschool Setting (CPBPS) scale. Preschool teachers ( N = 16) completed the CPBPS and related measures for 255 children aged 3–5 years. Following item refinement procedures, the scale was reduced to 28 items representing five theoretically grounded dimensions: helping, comforting, cooperating, sharing, and defending. Principal Component Analysis and Confirmatory Factor Analysis provided preliminary support for the five-factor structure, demonstrating acceptable model fit. Internal consistency coefficients ranged from .91 to .96 across subscales, indicating excellent reliability. Evidence of convergent validity was supported by significant correlations with established measures of empathy and prosocial behavior. Exploratory analyses also revealed age- and gender-related differences in prosocial behaviors, consistent with developmental literature. Overall, the findings suggest that the CPBPS is a valid and reliable teacher-report measure for assessing multidimensional prosocial behaviors in preschool settings.

The emergence of prosocial tendencies in early childhood is still not well understood and not commonly tested with direct measures. This study investigated predictors of prosocial behavior (i.e., prosocial decision-making and prosocial creativity) in 3-to-5-year-old children and explored the role of demographic factors on empathy and moral behavior. The children completed a series of child-appropriate computerized standardized picture-based tasks to evaluate their creativity, empathy, moral development, prosocial decision-making, and prosocial creativity. Parents completed questionnaires on their children’s prosocial skills and empathy, while researchers used the children’s task performance to determine their prosocial behavior and creativity. Binary and ordinal logistic regression indicated that children’s age, creativity, and cognitive empathy played important roles in prosocial decision-making and prosocial creativity. These elements likely construct the foundation of children’s prosocial behavior. Moral behavior was also important for prosocial decision-making, which was a precondition for prosocial creativity. A developmental pattern was also found for the emergence of empathy and moral behaviors, suggesting that these abilities may mature over time or may be learned as children mature. By focusing on early interventions and evidence-based educational practices, policymakers can support the holistic development of young children and set the foundation for their future well-being and societal contributions.

The present study examined how empathy (affective and cognitive), basic psychological need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, and relatedness), and demographic factors (gender and academic achievement) jointly predict prosocial behavior during emerging adulthood. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, this research explored whether relatedness need satisfaction mediates the relationship between empathy and prosocial tendencies. A total of N=889 undergraduate students from a large public university in the southeastern United States completed self-report measures assessing empathy, psychological needs, and prosocial behavior. Path analysis revealed that affective empathy and relatedness satisfaction were significant predictors of prosocial behavior. Relatedness also partially mediated the link between empathy and helping actions. Furthermore, gender and GPA contributed to prosocial outcomes, with female students and those with higher academic achievement reporting greater prosocial tendencies. These findings suggest that fostering emotional engagement and supporting students’ psychological needs—particularly the need for relatedness—may be key mechanisms for promoting prosocial development in educational settings during the critical stage of emerging adulthood.

Prosocial behavior is defined as actions intended to benefit others regardless of potential gains the person performing the actions or behaviors may receive. Prosocial creativity is described as an ability to produce a solution for someone’s problem in an effective, original, and convenient way. This study mainly investigated predictors of prosocial behavior (e.g., prosocial decision-making and prosocial creativity) in 3-to-5-year-old children and explored the role of demographics on empathy and moral behavior. The children completed a series of child appropriate computerized standardized picture-based tasks to evaluate their creativity, empathy, moral development, prosocial decision-making, and prosocial creativity. Parents completed questionnaires on their children’s prosocial skills and empathy, while researchers used the children’s task performance to determine their prosocial behavior and creativity levels. Binary and ordinal logistic regression indicated that children’s age, creativity, and cognitive empathy played an important role in prosocial decision-making and prosocial creativity. These elements likely construct the foundation of children’s prosocial behavior. Moral behavior was also important for prosocial decision-making, which was a precondition for prosocial creativity. A developmental pattern was also found for the emergence of empathy and moral behaviors, suggesting that these abilities may mature over time or may be learned as children mature.

This article presents normative information for the Defining Issue Test Version 2 (DIT2) schema scores and most common summary scores based on secondary data from the last 10 years DIT2 database (N = 73740, Mage = 23.11, SD = 7.87, the age range in year = 12–95) maintained by the University of Alabama’s Center for the Study of Ethical Development from 2011 to 2020. More specifically, the study provides (1) norms by education; (2) norms by gender and education; and (3) norms by gender and age for the DIT2. The norms indicate a general but not consistent trend that moral reasoning scores increase by education level. Additionally, the Personal Interest and Maintain Norms scores are higher for males than females for all education levels and age groups while Postconventional, N2, and Type indicator scores are higher for females than males for all education levels and age groups.

Objective: This study aimed to explore sibling relationship quality and empathy of women in emerging adulthood.Background: The gender composition of siblings is a significant feature affecting their relationship dynamics. In particular, women, compared with men, report closer sibling relationships with their sisters and brothers. Similarly, women are better at understanding and experiencing empathy. However, it is unclear whether these empathic tendencies displayed by women are connected to their sibling relationship quality or whether affective and cognitive empathy skills may relate to sibling relationship dynamics.Methods: A mixed‐method explanatory sequential design was used to evaluate sibling relationships of emerging adult women (N = 284) with standardized questionnaires and explain the reasons behind the results by interviewing a subsample of the participants (n = 9).Results: Results indicated that affective empathy and cognitive empathy were linked to sibling relationship quality of women, and major issues in the family play a crucial role in sibling closeness and empathy.Conclusion: The current study expands our understanding of the association between empathy and sibling relationship dynamics for emerging adult women.Implications: Programs designed to improve sibling relationship quality may facilitate empathy development, particularly during family crises such as divorce, death, or disease.

The Lifespan Sibling Relationship Scale (LSRS) is the most comprehensive self-report questionnaire available to evaluate the quality of sibling relationships based on feelings, behaviors, and opinions across child and adult periods of development. To the best of our knowledge, the psychometric properties of the LSRS have not been assessed or reported in an English-speaking population since this assessment tool was introduced 20 years ago. The current study examined the internal reliability and construct validity of the LSRS with a sample of 370 young adults living in the United States. Results indicated that the original six-factor model of the LSRS is plausible with minor modifications to measure the sibling relationship quality and with its close correlation between factors and scales.

Existing research concerning empathy development has primarily focused on the role of parents, culture, and education but has overlooked the role of siblings. This current retrospective study investigates the association between the quality of sibling relationships in young adults and their cognitive and affective empathy processes. Cognitive empathy refers to understanding and/or reflecting on another person’s viewpoint, while affective empathy refers to responding in sentiment to another’s emotional response. A total of 205 young adults participated in the study and completed questionnaires examining their sibling relationship quality and empathy. Strong positive relationships were observed between affective empathy and sibling relationship quality, which suggests that siblings may play a unique role in shaping each other’s affective empathy development. Young adults with a sibling who made a positive impact on them had higher sibling relationship quality and affective empathy scores. Additionally, female participants reported higher affective empathy and quality relationship with their siblings than male participants.