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. 2022 Nov;40(4):520-538.
doi: 10.1111/bjdp.12426. Epub 2022 Jun 24.

Being helpful to other-gender peers: School-age children's gender-based intergroup prosocial behaviour

Sonya Xinyue Xiao  1 , Carol Lynn Martin  1 , Tracy L Spinrad  1 , Nancy Eisenberg  2 , Dawn DeLay  1 , Laura D Hanish  1 , Richard A Fabes  1 , Krista Oswalt  1
Affiliations

Being helpful to other-gender peers: School-age children's gender-based intergroup prosocial behaviour

Sonya Xinyue Xiao et al. Br J Dev Psychol. 2022 Nov.

Abstract

Promoting prosocial behaviour towards those who are dissimilar from oneself is an urgent contemporary issue. Because children spend much time in same-gender relationships, promoting other-gender prosociality could help them develop more inclusive relationships. Our goals were to better understand the development of school-age children's intergroup prosocial behavior and the extent to which elementary school-age children consider their own and the recipient's gender in prosocial behaviour. Participants included 515 3rd, 4th and 5th graders (263, 51.1% boys, Mageinyears = 9.08, SD = 1.00) surveyed in the fall (T1) and spring (T2). We assessed children's prosociality using peer nominations. Children became more prosocial toward same-gender peers over time but prosocial behavior toward other-gender peers remained stable. We found that gender mattered: Children showed an ingroup bias in prosociality favouring members of their own-gender group. Having other-gender friendships positively predicted children's prosocial behaviour towards other-gender peers over time. Children's felt similarity to other-gender peers was not directly, but indirectly, related to more prosocial behaviour toward other-gender peers. Findings shed light on potential pathways to fostering school-age children's intergroup prosocial behaviors.

Keywords: cross-group friendships; gender; gender similarity; intergroup contact; intergroup relations; prosocial behavior.

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