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. 2022 Aug;51(8):1636-1652.
doi: 10.1007/s10964-022-01616-2. Epub 2022 Apr 27.

Prosocial Behavior and Aggression in the Daily School Lives of Early Adolescents

Reout Arbel  1 , Dominique F Maciejewski  2 , Mor Ben-Yehuda  3 , Sandra Shnaider  3 , Bar Benari  3 , Moti Benita  4
Affiliations

Prosocial Behavior and Aggression in the Daily School Lives of Early Adolescents

Reout Arbel et al. J Youth Adolesc. 2022 Aug.

Abstract

Research has not adequately addressed a possible mutual co-regulatory influence of prosocial and aggressive behaviors in adolescents' daily lives. This study explored bidirectional within-person associations between prosocial and aggressive behaviors in the daily school lives of early adolescents. The sample included 242 sixth-graders [Mage = 11.96 (SD = 0.18), 50% girls] and their teachers. Adolescents reported on daily prosocial behavior and reactive and proactive aggression for ten consecutive days. Teachers and adolescents reported on adolescents' overall prosocial behaviors. Across-day prosocial behaviors increased after days when adolescents exhibited more reactive aggression but not among self-reported low-prosocial adolescents. Increased prosocial behaviors did not mitigate aggression the next day. The findings suggest prosocial behaviors are a plausible compensatory strategy after daily aggressive reactions.

Keywords: Adolescence; Daily diary data; Peer aggression; Prosocial behaviors; Social development.

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