Pathways to Prosociality: How Classroom Strategies That Support Basic Psychological Needs Foster Prosocial Behavior...

This study investigated how specific components of a classroom-based intervention promote prosocial behavior in primary school children, guided by Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT). Drawing on data from a large-scale intervention (N = 1132, 43.3% girls, M _age = 9.96, SD _age = 1.22), we examined two sequential mediation pathways: (1) the quantity pathway: whether the presence of intervention components (meaningful roles, peer compliments, and democratic classroom meetings) predicted prosocial behavior through increased general need fulfilment (autonomy, competence, relatedness) and prosocial motivation; (2) the quality pathway: whether the specific basic psychological needs fulfilment within each component predicted prosocial behavior through increased general need fulfilment and prosocial motivation. Results supported both mediation pathways. For the quantity pathway, the presence of compliments and democratic classroom meetings showed indirect effects through general autonomy and relatedness, whereas meaningful roles exerted a primarily direct influence. For the quality pathway, component-specific relatedness emerged as the most consistent predictor of prosocial behavior, followed by more selective effects for component-specific autonomy, namely, only for meaningful roles. This suggests that everyday classroom strategies and experiences can incrementally contribute to general need fulfillment, thereby promoting prosocial behavior. These findings underscore the importance of identifying specific mechanisms of interventions and highlight how need-supportive strategies can foster prosocial development in school settings.