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Grouping of children's helping behaviour.
1University of Helsinki, Finland.
Psychological Reports
|December 1, 1992
Summary
This study identified three types of child helpers: genuine helpers with high empathy, normative helpers driven by social factors, and rational helpers with underdeveloped social understanding. These findings highlight distinct motivations behind children's helping behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Understanding the nuances of helping behavior in children is crucial for developmental and social psychology.
- Previous research has explored factors influencing altruism, but a comprehensive categorization of helping behaviors based on underlying motivations is less defined.
Purpose of the Study:
- To categorize children's helping behaviors based on psychological and cognitive factors.
- To identify distinct profiles of helpers among school-aged children.
Main Methods:
- Factor analysis and grouping analysis were applied to data from 215 school children (aged 9-12).
- Variables measured included helping, empathy, altruism, morality, cognitive readiness, social desirability, and abstract thinking.
- Age and sex were included as covariates in the factor analysis.
Main Results:
- Five key factors emerged: empathetic helping, socially desirable helping, cognitive helping, intentionality, and rational helping.
- Three distinct groups of helpers were identified: 'real helpers' (high empathy, altruism, morality), 'normative helpers' (social desirability/cognitive motivation, low empathy), and 'cognitively premature, rational helpers' (low empathy, weak social desirability).
Conclusions:
- Children's helping behaviors can be differentiated into distinct categories based on underlying motivations and cognitive profiles.
- The findings suggest that interventions aimed at fostering helping behavior should consider these different motivational and cognitive dimensions.