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. 2010 Nov-Dec;81(6):1814-27.
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2010.01512.x.

Toddlers' prosocial behavior: from instrumental to empathic to altruistic helping

Margarita Svetlova  1 , Sara R Nichols, Celia A Brownell
Affiliations

Toddlers' prosocial behavior: from instrumental to empathic to altruistic helping

Margarita Svetlova et al. Child Dev. 2010 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

The study explored how the meaning of prosocial behavior changes over toddlerhood. Sixty-five 18- and 30-month-olds could help an adult in 3 contexts: instrumental (action based), empathic (emotion based), and altruistic (costly). Children at both ages helped readily in instrumental tasks. For 18-month-olds, empathic helping was significantly more difficult than instrumental helping and required greater communication from the adult about her needs. Altruistic helping, which involved giving up an object of the child's own, was the most difficult for children at both ages. Findings suggest that over the 2nd year of life, prosocial behavior develops from relying on action understanding and explicit communications to understanding others' emotions from subtle cues. Developmental trajectories of social-cognitive and motivational components of early helping are discussed.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean number of times (± SE) children helped by age and condition (out of 3 possible instances per condition).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean target helping scores (± SE) by age and condition. Higher scores indicate earlier helping with less communicative support.
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