Prosocial Behaviors in 13 to 70 months old Children: A Naturalistic Observation Study
Muhammed Şükrü AydınProsocial behaviors are first observed at an early age. However, almost no studies examine different prosocial behaviors together or provide an intervention-free observation. Therefore, in this study, preschool children’s helping, sharing, cooperation, informing, comforting, and compliant prosocial behaviors were investigated in their kindergarten context by using naturalistic observation. Another aim was to observe prosocial behavior not specified in the literature. The study comprised 16 children aged 13–23 months, 30 children aged 24–35 months, 28 children aged 36–47 months, 32 children aged 48–59 months, and 35 children aged 60–70 months; thus, 141 children (62 girls, 79 boys) were observed. Observations were conducted during the children’s activity, free play, and structured play timeframes, and behaviors were recorded by the observer. The total duration of observations conducted for each age group in multiple sessions was 500 minutes. The frequencies of prosocial behaviors were examined in each age group. Data indicated that helping, sharing, comforting, and compliant prosocial behaviors were observed after the children’s first birthday. Cooperation and informing behaviors were observed during the second year of the children’s life. In addition to these prosocial behaviors, some behaviors such as defending and motivating others, which both contribute to the well-being of others, were also observed in this study, and related prototypes were presented in the results section. Additionally, in-class practices, peers’ past experiences with each other, and characteristics of children (whether they are agents or recipients of prosocial behavior) influenced the emergence of different prosocial behaviors. Results, which further enhanced the sets of evidence pointing to the multidimensional nature of prosocial behaviors, were discussed in the context of classroom observations conducted on preschool children.
13-70 Aylık Çocuklarda Prososyal Davranışlar: Doğal Gözlem Çalışması
Muhammed Şükrü AydınPrososyal davranışların erken dönemlerden itibaren görüldüğü bilinmektedir ancak alan yazında hem farklı prososyal davranışların bir arada ele alındığı hem de müdahalesiz gözlemin yapıldığı çalışmalar yok denecek kadar azdır. Bu nedenle mevcut çalışmada okul öncesi dönemdeki çocukların yardım, paylaşma, işbirliği, bilgilendirme, rahatlatma ve itaatkar prososyal davranışları kreş ortamında doğal gözlem yapılarak incelenmiştir. Buna ek olarak, literatürde belirtilmeyen prososyal davranışların belirlenmesi de amaçlanmıştır. Çalışma kapsamında yaşları 13-23 aylık olan 16 çocuk, 24-35 aylık olan 30 çocuk, 36-47 aylık olan 28 çocuk, 48-59 aylık olan 32 çocuk ve 60-70 aylık olan 35 çocuk olmak üzere toplamda 141 çocuk (62 kız, 79 erkek) gözlemlenmiştir. Gözlemler çocukların faaliyet, serbest oyun ve yapılandırılmış oyun zaman dilimlerinde gerçekleştirilmiş, ayrıca gözlemci tarafından davranış kayıtları tutulmuştur. Her bir yaş grubu için birden çok oturumda toplam 500 dakikalık gözlemler yapılmıştır. Prososyal davranış türleri için her bir yaş grubunun frekansları ayrı ayrı incelenmiştir. Gözlemler sonucunda yardım, paylaşma, rahatlatma ve itaatkar prososyal davranışların çocukların ilk yaşlarından itibaren ortaya çıktığı, iki yaşından itibaren ise işbirliği ve bilgilendirme prososyal davranış türlerinin görüldüğü bulunmuştur. Sözü edilen davranışlara ek olarak başkasının hakkını koruma, motive etme gibi başkasının iyi oluşuna hizmet eden farklı davranışlar da iki yaştan itibaren gözlenmiş ve bu davranışlara ilişkin örnekler bulgular bölümünde sunulmuştur. Ayrıca, farklı prososyal davranışların ortaya çıkmasında sınıf içi uygulamaların, çocuklar arasındaki önceki deneyimlerin ve hem prososyal davranışta bulunan hem de prososyal davranışın alıcısı olan çocukların özelliklerinin de etkili olduğu görülmüştür. Sonuçların, prososyal davranışın çok boyutlu yapısını desteklediği görülmüş ve bu durum okul öncesi dönemdeki çocukların sınıf ortamından elde edilen gözlemlerle bağlantılandırılarak tartışma bölümünde ele alınmıştır.
Helping, cooperation, and sharing behaviors have long been investigated in the field of prosocial behavior (Paulus, 2014; Svetlova, Nichols, & Brownell, 2010). Types of prosocial behaviors may emerge at different ages because these behaviors require distinct perceptions of other individuals’ purposes, emotions, or desires. Accordingly, studies have been conducted to assess when prosocial behaviors emerge, how they develop, and which factors influence their emergence (Brownell, Svetlova, Anderson, Nichols, & Drummond, 2013).
These studies have leveraged various methods to assess prosocial behaviors. Prosocial behaviors were assessed according to parent/teacher reports or individual tasks (Arı & Yaban, 2016). However, one of the most notable limitations of this method is how different reporters can reflect the truth while others only create a halo effect (Toplak, West, & Stanovich, 2013). This limitation has led to an increase in individual tasks using structured observations in recent studies. The major limitation of structured observation is that researchers may cause generalization problems by restricting the behavior of the child with their control, because they are also present in the experimental room. Ensuring naturalistic observations without any interventions is important in terms of behavior description, and the external validity of structured observations (Ponitz, McClelland, Matthews, & Morrison, 2009). Therefore, prosocial behaviors should be examined by using naturalistic observations. For this reason,the purpose of this study is twofold: describe the types of prosocial behaviors observed in children’s kindergarten environments without any intervention and determine if any prosocial behavior not specified in the literature is observed.
Method
The study comprised 16 children aged 13–23 months (M = 17.87, S = 3.32), 30 children aged 24–35 months (M = 29.96, S = 3.91), 28 children aged 36–47 months (M = 40.92, S = 3.8), 32 children aged 48–59 months (M = 51.59, S = 3.52), and 35 children aged 60–70 months (M = 63.71, S = 3.71); thus, 141 children aged from 13–70 months were observed.
In this study, a small video recording device was used. The researcher performing this part of the research noted that short anecdotal recordings of observed behavior were used in addition to the video recording, because the latter may miss certain interactions among children. Moreover, the ad-lib method was used in the observation of prosocial behaviors after the pilot studies were conducted. Consequently, children were observed during their free play times, structured play times, and activity times (e.g., physical or cognitive activity time). A total of 500 minutes of observation were conducted for each age group. The study comprised four sessions in the group that was aged 1–2 years. In other age groups, two sessions were conducted for each class.
Results
Our results demonstrated that helping, sharing, compliant, and comforting behaviors were observed in children aged 12–23 months. Sharing, comforting, and compliant prosocial behaviors occurred in children aged 13 months. Helping, informing, and cooperation behaviors were observed at 14, 24, and 29 months, respectively. After the children had aged 24 months, additional behaviors (e.g., motivating and protecting the rights of others), which can be defined as “acting for the benefit of others,” were observed.
Discussion
The findings are consistent with those of other studies, suggesting that various types of prosocial behaviors begin to emerge in the first two years of life (Svetlova et al., 2010; Warneken & Tomasello, 2007). The observations revealed that teachers and caregivers had positive and negative effects on the prosocial behaviors of children. Some teachers directly interfered when the children were sharing things with or helping each other; other teachers designed activities that could restrain (e.g., providing a separate pastel set for each child during activity times) or encourage (e.g., putting pastels in the middle of the table) children’s prosocial behaviors. An essential point indicated by the results is that the recipients of prosocial behavior were generally the children who were physical disability inadequate. This finding also supports Paulus’ (2014) results. Additionally, children who behaved prosocially recognized the conditions in a more advanced manner. The literature has demonstrated that peer-to-peer experiences and interactions in the past can also influence the emergence of prosocial behaviors, as stated by Eisenberg, Fabes, & Spinrad, 2006. Behaviors were spontaneously examined without intervention. However, because the ad-lib method is a non-systematic natural observation method, it is an important limitation of this study. Another limitation of the observation method is that the data do not apply to quantitative analysis. Because no systematic observation and data are collected from a single school, inferring that the prosocial behaviors observed in an age group can be observed in all children of the same age group would be inappropriate. For the same reasons, a conclusion that children do not or rarely demonstrate prosocial behaviors in certain age groups might be incorrect. In summary, this study emphasized the importance of the multidimensional nature of prosocial behaviors by highlighting the contribution of socialization processes, personality traits, and cognitive skills.