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27-06-2023 | Empirical Research

Does Being Prosocial Pay Off? Testing Positive Developmental Cascades of Prosocial Behavior, Social Preference, and Subjective Well-Being in Chinese Adolescents

Auteurs: Yuke Xiong, Jiahui Chen, Liu Yang, Xiaolin Guo, Ping Ren

Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence | Uitgave 9/2023

Abstract

Positive aspects of adolescent development recently have raised researchers’ interests; however, studies examining reciprocal links between prosocial behavior, social preference, and subjective well-being are lacking. The present longitudinal study investigated the bidirectional relations between prosocial behavior, social preference, and subjective well-being within a theoretical framework of the developmental cascade model. A total of 1248 Chinese adolescents (M = 13.44, SD = 0.65; 47.0% girls) were surveyed across three waves with 6-month intervals. The results of analyses utilizing the random-intercept cross-lagged panel model demonstrated that prosocial behavior was positively associated with both social preference and subjective well-being, and social preference was not associated with subjective well-being at the between-person level. At the within-person level, prosocial behavior was positively reciprocally associated with social preference, while no significant relations between prosocial behavior and subjective well-being and between social preference and subjective well-being were found. The findings highlight adolescents’ prosocial behavior and social preference could mutually facilitate each other over time, which can be used to guide adolescents’ positive development.

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Titel: Does Being Prosocial Pay Off? Testing Positive Developmental Cascades of Prosocial Behavior, Social Preference, and Subjective Well-Being in Chinese Adolescents
Auteurs: Yuke Xiong
Jiahui Chen
Liu Yang
Xiaolin Guo
Ping Ren
Publicatiedatum: 27-06-2023
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Journal of Youth and Adolescence / Uitgave 9/2023
Print ISSN: 0047-2891
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-6601
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-023-01809-3

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