TY - JOUR
T1 - The influence of socioeconomic status and appearance-reality understanding on pre-schoolers' sharing and generosity
AU - Hashim, Nawal
AU - Fischer, Nastassja L.
AU - Kim, Elizabeth B.
AU - Yeung, Wei Jun Jean
AU - Yu, Rongjun
N1 - Funding information:
This work was supported by Singapore's Ministry of Education Social Science Research Thematic Grant (MOE2016 – SSRTG – 044). Nastassja L. Fischer is currently supported by the Cambridge–NTU Centre for Lifelong Learning and Individualized Cognition (CLIC), a project by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Prime Minister's Office, Singapore, under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) Programme. We would thank the participants and their parents for supporting this research. We also thank the reviewers and the editor for their time and for the improvements suggested to the manuscript
Publisher copyright:
© 2023 British Psychological Society.
PY - 2023/11
Y1 - 2023/11
N2 - Prosocial behaviour can be defined as any voluntary action that is performed to benefit another individual. Despite accumulating evidence of the importance of environmental variables (e.g., socioeconomic status; SES), and individual characteristics (e.g., theory of mind – ToM – skills), in influencing prosocial behaviours in young children, it is unknown how these factors relate to the underlying motivations for prosocial behaviours. Accordingly, both extrinsically (sharing) and intrinsically (generosity)-guided prosocial behaviours are measured in this study. We explore the influences of SES and ToM skills on young children's sharing behaviour and generosity, while controlling their age, working memory and language skills. Sixty-six 4- to 6 year olds (Mage = 5.24 years, SD = 0.73) from diverse SES (measured by parental education level) and ethnic backgrounds in Singapore completed tasks assessing the ToM measures of false belief and appearance-reality understanding, working memory, language skills, generosity, and sharing behaviour. The results of hierarchical regression analyses demonstrate that the father's education level and children's appearance-reality understanding were significant predictors of sharing, after controlling for age, working memory, language skills, and the mother's education level. Children's appearance-reality understanding was the sole predictor of children's generosity. Our findings highlight the impact of children's ability to hold different views of reality and their family's education levels on the development of sharing and generosity in early childhood.
AB - Prosocial behaviour can be defined as any voluntary action that is performed to benefit another individual. Despite accumulating evidence of the importance of environmental variables (e.g., socioeconomic status; SES), and individual characteristics (e.g., theory of mind – ToM – skills), in influencing prosocial behaviours in young children, it is unknown how these factors relate to the underlying motivations for prosocial behaviours. Accordingly, both extrinsically (sharing) and intrinsically (generosity)-guided prosocial behaviours are measured in this study. We explore the influences of SES and ToM skills on young children's sharing behaviour and generosity, while controlling their age, working memory and language skills. Sixty-six 4- to 6 year olds (Mage = 5.24 years, SD = 0.73) from diverse SES (measured by parental education level) and ethnic backgrounds in Singapore completed tasks assessing the ToM measures of false belief and appearance-reality understanding, working memory, language skills, generosity, and sharing behaviour. The results of hierarchical regression analyses demonstrate that the father's education level and children's appearance-reality understanding were significant predictors of sharing, after controlling for age, working memory, language skills, and the mother's education level. Children's appearance-reality understanding was the sole predictor of children's generosity. Our findings highlight the impact of children's ability to hold different views of reality and their family's education levels on the development of sharing and generosity in early childhood.
KW - generosity
KW - prosocial behaviour
KW - sharing
KW - socioeconomic status
KW - theory of mind
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85156229107&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/bjdp.12451
DO - 10.1111/bjdp.12451
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0261-510X
VL - 41
SP - 325
EP - 342
JO - British Journal of Developmental Psychology
JF - British Journal of Developmental Psychology
IS - 4
ER -