Becoming prosocial: The consistency of individual differences in early prosocial behavior

Recent research on early prosocial behavior has questioned whether young children show consistency in their prosocial responding across different tasks and over time. Two studies are reported that address this issue, one with 18-month-olds (n = 86) and one with older children studied longitudinally at 4.5 and 6 years (n = 51). In each, children's responses to multiple age-appropriate prosocial tasks were assessed using both variable-centered and person-centered analyses. Variable-centered analyses revealed generally significant associations between children's responses across tasks and, in older children, over time. Person-centered analyses revealed that children were distinguished into low prosocial, moderate prosocial, and “frequent helpers” groups with the addition of a high prosocial group in older children. These findings indicate that although situational characteristics are important, their importance varies across children and development. Results suggest that young children tend to show consistency in individual differences in their prosocial responding across situations and distinct dispositional profiles of children can be observed, including those who demonstrate high prosocial responding across situations requiring different cognitive, social and motivational skills.