Children's altruism following acute stress: The role of autonomic nervous system activity and social support

Abstract

Altruistic behavior after stress exposure may have important health and psychological benefits, in addition to broader societal consequences. However, so far experimental research on altruism following acute stress has been limited to adult populations. The current study utilized an experimental design to investigate how altruistic donation behavior among children may be influenced by (a) exposure to an acute social stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test modified for use with children (TSST-M), (b) individual differences in stress physiology, and (c) social support from a parent. The sample consisted of 180 children (54.9% male, 45.1% female; mean age = 9.92 years, SD = 0.56 years) randomly assigned to one of three conditions involving the TSST-M: (a) prepare for the TSST-M alone, (b) prepare for the TSST-M with a parent, and (c) no-stress control group. Results revealed that children made larger donations post-stressor if they were alone before the acute stressor, if they had moderate cardiac autonomic balance, reflecting both parasympathetic and sympathetic influence, and if they were older. Children who prepared for the TSST-M with social support from a parent made comparable donations as children in the no-stress control group, in accord with stress buffering models. Increased altruism following acute stress among children suggests that a comprehensive understanding of the human stress response needs to incorporate "tend-and-befriend" behavior-the tendency for humans to show increased altruistic behavior during times of distress.

Keywords: acute stress; altruism; autonomic nervous system; cardiac autonomic balance; prosocial behavior; social support.

Figure 1.

Timeline of study visit. Blue drops represent saliva collection timepoints. TSST-M = Trier Social Stress Test – Modified for children. SAM = Self-Assessment Mannequin subjective stress measure. ECG = electrocardiogram. IMP = impedance.

Figure 2.

Violin plot showing children’s donation amount by experimental condition. TSST-M = Trier Social Stress Test - modified for children. Bars represents mean donation amount. White boxes represent standard error of the mean. * p < .05.

Figure 3.

Scatterplot showing quadratic relation between children’s donation amount and baseline cardiac autonomic balance (CAB). Shaded area represents 95% confidence interval.