Psychological processes and family variables as prosocial behavior predictors in a sample of Spanish adolescents

Psychol Rep. 2006 Feb;98(1):30-6. doi: 10.2466/pr0.98.1.30-36.

Abstract

A review of personal and family variables that regulate prosocial behavior is based on a sample of 1,433 Spanish adolescents (ages 9 to 13; 743 boys and 690 girls) who were assessed on the Prosocial Reasoning Objective Measure, the Physical and Verbal Aggression Scale, the Emotional Instability Scale, the State-Trait Anger Inventory, the Child's Report of Parental Behavior Inventory, the Prosocial Behavior Scale, and the Index of Empathy for Children and Adolescents. Discriminant analyses showed that empathy, self-control in anger-provoking situations, and affection in family relationships are the best predictors of prosocial behavior.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Aggression / psychology
  • Attitude / ethnology
  • Child
  • Empathy
  • Family / psychology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Parenting
  • Parents / psychology
  • Psychology / methods*
  • Social Behavior*
  • Spain
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Verbal Behavior