Conference Program

High-quality education should foster academic learning alongside positive behaviors that allow young people to build foundational skills and values that support an engaged citizenship (Elias et al., 1997). Prosocial behavior, defined as voluntary behavior enacted to benefit another (Eisenberg et al., 2013), fosters social competence and positive citizenship (Caprara et al., 2014). Building on Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 2001), prosocial behavior emerges from a complex interplay of multiple determinants (Eisenberg et al., 2013). Parents transmit values through which children view social relationships (Tamis-LeMonda et al., 2007), particularly through collectivist values emphasizing interdependence and concern for the large group. Self-regulation predicts prosocial behavior by enabling children to inhibit selfish impulses and sustain prosocial behavior (Eisenberg et al., 1992). Furthermore, reward sensitivity is positively associated with prosocial behavior in children (Yu et al., 2024), suggesting that children's responsiveness to social rewards facilitates prosocial behaviors. However, little is known about how these personality variables jointly shape prosocial behavior in late childhood.

This study investigates how parental collectivism and children’s reward sensitivity and self-regulation interact in predicting prosocial behavior.

Participants were parents (N=189, 95.8% mothers) of children attending primary schools (55% boys; 47.5% third grade, 24.8% fourth grade, 27.7% fifth grade) within the Italian Small and Rural Schools Network of INDIRE. Parents’ collectivism values were assessed using the Individualism/Collectivism Scale (Triandis, 2018). Children’s self-regulation was assessed using a composite score of parent-reported measures (Coryn et al., 2009; Elliott et al., 2020; Simonds & Rothbart, 2004). Children’s prosocial behavior was assessed through parent-reported Prosocial Behavior scale (Caprara & Pastorelli, 1993). Children’s reward sensitivity was assessed through parent-reported BIS/BAS scales (Carver & White, 1994).

A multiple regression examined main and interactive effects of parental collectivism, children’s reward sensitivity and self-regulation on prosocial behavior, controlling for child gender, grade, school site, parental role and social desirability. Results revealed significant positive effects for self-regulation (β=.241, p=.008) and reward sensitivity (β=.256, p=.002). Moreover, parental collectivism significantly moderated the association between self-regulation and prosocial behavior (β=.221, p=.022). Specifically, higher self-regulation was associated with greater prosocial behavior, particularly in contexts characterized by higher parental collectivism; whereas parental collectivism was low, differences in prosocial behavior between high and low self-regulation children were smaller. A similar pattern emerged for reward sensitivity: children with higher reward sensitivity displayed higher levels of prosocial behavior when parental collectivism was high, whereas the association was weaker in the case of low parental collectivism (β=.173, p=.042).

Overall, these findings suggest that collectivistic parental values may amplify the role of individual motivational and regulatory characteristics in promoting prosocial behavior during late childhood. In line with Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 2001), these findings suggest that educational contexts may benefit from recognizing the interplay between individual characteristics and cultural values in supporting children’s prosocial behavior.