Parental warmth and children’s prosocial behavior: The role of group orientation

Prosocial behavior is a major aspect of social functioning in childhood and adolescence. Research has indicated relations between parental warmth and children’s prosocial behavior. However, the meachanims for the relations remain unclear, especially in non-Western countries. The primary purpose of the present longitudinal study was to explore the role of children’s group orientation in linking parental warmth and children’s prosocial behavior. Group orientation, characterized as concern for group welfare and interpersonal harmony, has been particularly emphasized in socialization and believed to regulate children’s behaviors in social interaction in Chinese collectivistic society. To address the gap in the literature, this study examined the transactional relations among perceived parental warmth, child group orientation, and child prosocial behavior with a focus on the mediating effects of group orientation. Multi-wave longitudinal data were collected each year from Grade 4 to Grade 6 in a sample of five randomly selected regular public elementary schools in China (initial N = 1033; 49.5% girls; initial Mage = 10.28 years, SD = 0.69). Data on parental warmth, group orientation, and prosocial behavior were obtained from multiple sources including self-reports and teacher ratings. Measurement invariance tests were first conducted for the measures with multiple indicators across three times of measurement. Next, latent cross-lagged panel models were constructed to examine the relations among maternal/paternal warmth, group orientation, and prosocial behavior controlling children’s gender and parental educational level. Multigroup analyses were also conducted to examine gender differences in the models. The results showed that maternal warmth positively predicted later prosocial behavior, and child prosocial behavior positively predicted later paternal warmth. Both paternal and maternal warmth positively predicted child group orientation, which in turn positively predicted child prosocial behavior; group orientation was a mediator of the contributions of parental warmth to prosocial behavior. Multigroup analyses showed no significant gender differences in the cross-lagged paths. The findings highlight the crucial role that group orientation plays in the link between parental warmth and children’s prosocial behavior. The study has significant implications for early intervention to promote children’s prosocial behavior.