Toseeb Umar, Pickles Andrew, Durkin Kevin, Botting Nicola, Conti-Ramsden Gina
Department of Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Brooks Building, 53 Bonsall Street, Manchester M15 6GX, UK.
Department of Biostatistics, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, Denmark Hill, London, SE5 8AF, UK.
Res Dev Disabil. 2017 Mar;62:148-159. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2017.01.018. Epub 2017 Feb 3.
Longitudinal research into the development of prosociality contributes vitally to understanding of individual differences in psychosocial outcomes. Most of the research to date has been concerned with prosocial behaviour in typically developing young people; much less has been directed to the course of development in individuals with developmental disorders.
This study reports a longitudinal investigation of prosocial behaviour in young people with language impairment (LI), and compares trajectories of development to typically developing age-matched peers (AMPs).
Participants were followed from age 11 years to young adulthood (age 24 years).
Participants with LI perceived themselves as prosocial; their ratings - though lower than those for the AMPs - were well within the normal range and they remained consistently so from 11 to 24 years. Two different developmental trajectories were identified for the LI group, which were stable and differed only in level of prosociality. Approximately one third of participants with LI followed a moderate prosociality trajectory whilst the majority (71%) followed a prosocial trajectory. We found evidence of protective effects of prosociality for social outcomes in young adulthood.
The findings indicate that prosociality is an area of relative strength in LI. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS?: To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine developmental changes in levels of prosociality from early adolescence to young adulthood in a cohort of young people with LI. Approximately one third of participants with LI followed a moderate prosociality trajectory whilst the majority (71%) followed a prosocial trajectory. We argue that prosociality is different to other areas of functioning in LI. Prosociality appears to be an area of relative strength and can act as a protective factor in social functioning. Prosociality was associated with better community integration in young adulthood and was significantly protective against friendship difficulties for individuals with LI. This paper also raises the thought-provoking issue of potential distal effects of early identification and intensive support for LI. It is important to note that all of the participants with LI in this study had been identified as having language difficulties in childhood and had received intensive intervention for their difficulties in language units attached to mainstream schools across England. The early identification of language difficulties and the context of early, intensive language support received in educational contexts such as language units may have nurtured socialisation processes and the development of emphatic concern, which in turn influence the development of prosociality later in young adulthood. More individual differences in prosociality have been reported for other samples drawn from a variety of schools with different educational provision and levels of language support and younger age groups, such as primary school-aged children with LI.
对亲社会行为发展的纵向研究对于理解心理社会结果中的个体差异至关重要。迄今为止，大多数研究都关注典型发育的年轻人的亲社会行为；针对发育障碍个体的发展过程的研究则少得多。
本研究报告了一项对语言障碍（LI）青少年亲社会行为的纵向调查，并将其发展轨迹与年龄匹配的典型发育同龄人（AMPs）进行比较。
参与者从11岁开始随访至青年期（24岁）。
患有LI的参与者认为自己具有亲社会行为；他们的评分——尽管低于AMPs——仍处于正常范围内，并且从11岁到24岁一直保持稳定。为LI组确定了两种不同的发展轨迹，它们是稳定的，仅在亲社会程度上有所不同。大约三分之一的LI参与者遵循中等亲社会轨迹，而大多数（71%）遵循亲社会轨迹。我们发现亲社会行为对青年期社会结果具有保护作用的证据。
研究结果表明，亲社会行为是LI中相对优势的领域。本文补充了什么？：据我们所知，这是第一项研究LI青少年从青春期早期到青年期亲社会行为水平发展变化的研究。大约三分之一的LI参与者遵循中等亲社会轨迹，而大多数（71%）遵循亲社会轨迹。我们认为亲社会行为与LI中的其他功能领域不同。亲社会行为似乎是一个相对优势领域，可以作为社会功能的保护因素。亲社会行为与青年期更好的社区融合相关，并且对LI个体的友谊困难具有显著的保护作用。本文还提出了一个发人深省的问题，即早期识别和对LI的强化支持可能产生的潜在远期影响。需要注意的是，本研究中所有患有LI的参与者在童年时期都被确定存在语言困难，并在英格兰各地主流学校附属的语言单位中因其语言困难接受了强化干预。语言困难的早期识别以及在语言单位等教育环境中获得的早期强化语言支持可能培养了社交过程和共情关注的发展，进而影响青年期后期亲社会行为的发展。对于从具有不同教育提供和语言支持水平的各种学校抽取的其他样本以及较年轻年龄组，如患有LI的小学儿童，已经报告了更多亲社会行为方面的个体差异。
