Waugh Whitney E, Brownell Celia A
University of Pittsburgh.
Infancy. 2017 Sep;22(5):665-680. doi: 10.1111/infa.12189. Epub 2017 May 26.
Prosocial behavior emerges in the second year of life, yet it is typical for children in this period not to share, comfort, or help. We compared toddlers (18, 30 months) who helped with those who did not help on two tasks (instrumental helping; empathic helping). More than half of children failed to help on one or both tasks. Nonhelpers engaged in more hypothesis testing on the instrumental helping task, but more security-seeking, wariness, and playing on the empathic helping task. Across tasks, children who tended to engage in nonhelping behaviors associated with negative emotional arousal also tended to seek comfort from a parent. In contrast, children who tended to play instead of helping were less likely to exhibit negative emotional arousal or hypothesis testing, suggesting a focus on their own interests. Parents of 18-month-old nonhelpers on the instrumental task were less engaged in socializing prosocial behavior in their toddlers than were the parents of helpers. On the empathic helping task, 18-month-old nonhelpers had less mature self-other understanding than did helpers. By examining how the predominant reasons for failing to help vary with age and task, we gain a fuller perspective on the factors involved in the early development of prosocial behavior.
亲社会行为在儿童两岁时出现，但在此期间儿童不分享、不安慰或不帮助他人是很常见的。我们比较了在两项任务（工具性帮助；共情性帮助）中提供帮助的幼儿（18个月、30个月）和未提供帮助的幼儿。超过半数的儿童在一项或两项任务中未能提供帮助。未提供帮助的儿童在工具性帮助任务中进行了更多的假设检验，但在共情性帮助任务中表现出更多寻求安全感、警惕和玩耍的行为。在各项任务中，倾向于做出与负面情绪唤起相关的不帮助行为的儿童也倾向于向父母寻求安慰。相比之下，倾向于玩耍而不提供帮助的儿童表现出负面情绪唤起或进行假设检验的可能性较小，这表明他们更关注自身利益。在工具性任务中，18个月大未提供帮助的儿童的父母在培养幼儿亲社会行为方面比提供帮助的儿童的父母参与度更低。在共情性帮助任务中，18个月大未提供帮助的儿童比提供帮助的儿童对自我与他人的理解更不成熟。通过研究不提供帮助的主要原因如何随年龄和任务而变化，我们对亲社会行为早期发展所涉及的因素有了更全面的认识。
