The roles of parenting practices, sociocognitive/emotive traits, and prosocial behaviors in low-income adolescents

Abstract

The goal of the current study was to examine the links among parenting practices (i.e., use of social and material rewards), sociocognitive and socioemotive traits (i.e., perspective taking, prosocial moral reasoning, and empathic concern), and prosocial behaviors among adolescents in a low-income, Midwestern community. Participants were 311 adolescents (M age = 16.10 years; range = 14-19 years; 58.7% girls; 82.7% White; 13.6% Latino). The results demonstrated that social rewards were positively associated with perspective taking, empathic concern, and prosocial moral reasoning, which were each associated with multiple forms of prosocial behaviors. Material rewards were negatively associated with prosocial moral reasoning and empathic concern. There were also direct links between material and social rewards and prosocial behaviors. Discussion will focus on the intervening role of social cognitions and emotions in explaining links between parenting practices and low-income adolescents' prosocial behaviors.

Keywords: Empathic concern; Parenting practices; Prosocial behaviors; Sociocognitive traits.