Costly Prosociality, Familiarity Among Peers, and School Climate: A Predictive Model

The objective of this study is to examine the associations between costly prosociality toward known and unknown school peers and well-being, school aggression, and school climate among Chilean secondary school students by estimating structural paths from costly prosociality to these variables. A correlational and explanatory quantitative study was conducted using a sample of 529 Chilean secondary school students recruited through convenience sampling. Likert-type self-report scales were administered to measure costly prosociality, school aggression, well-being, and school climate. HCPB toward both known and unknown peers was positively associated with well-being and school climate. In the structural models, the model involving known peers showed a significant negative path to school aggression, whereas the model involving unknown peers did not show a significant path to school aggression. The two structural models showed different descriptive patterns of associations, with the model involving unknown peers accounting for 34% of the variance in school climate, while the model involving known peers accounted for 27%. These findings provide descriptive evidence of distinct patterns of associations between costly prosociality and school-related variables according to beneficiary familiarity. In the discussion section, results are analyzed in light of the literature.