With a little help from their peers
- Peer groups are critical socialization agents for the development of social behavior in adolescence, but studies examining peer-group effects on individuals' prosocial behavior are scarce. Using a two-wave, multilevel data set (N = 16,893, 8481 male; 8412 female; mean age at Time 1: 14.0 years) from 1308 classes in 252 secondary schools in Germany, main effects of the classroom level of prosocial behavior, cross-level interactions between the classroom and the individual levels of prosocial behavior at Time 1, and the moderating role of gender were examined. The results showed that adolescents in classrooms with high collective levels of prosocial behavior at Time 1 reported more prosocial behavior at Time 2, about two years later, reflecting a class-level main effect. A significant cross-level interaction indicated that a high classroom level of prosocial behavior particularly affected individuals with lower levels of prosocial behavior at Time 1. The influence of same-gender peers was larger compared with opposite-gender peers. ThePeer groups are critical socialization agents for the development of social behavior in adolescence, but studies examining peer-group effects on individuals' prosocial behavior are scarce. Using a two-wave, multilevel data set (N = 16,893, 8481 male; 8412 female; mean age at Time 1: 14.0 years) from 1308 classes in 252 secondary schools in Germany, main effects of the classroom level of prosocial behavior, cross-level interactions between the classroom and the individual levels of prosocial behavior at Time 1, and the moderating role of gender were examined. The results showed that adolescents in classrooms with high collective levels of prosocial behavior at Time 1 reported more prosocial behavior at Time 2, about two years later, reflecting a class-level main effect. A significant cross-level interaction indicated that a high classroom level of prosocial behavior particularly affected individuals with lower levels of prosocial behavior at Time 1. The influence of same-gender peers was larger compared with opposite-gender peers. The findings are discussed with respect to social learning mechanisms in the development of prosocial behavior and their implications for interventions to promote prosocial behavior.…
| Author details: | Robert BuschingORCiDGND, Barbara KrahéORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01260-8 |
| ISSN: | 0047-2891 |
| ISSN: | 1573-6601 |
| Pubmed ID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32529342 |
| Title of parent work (English): | Journal of youth and adolescence : a multidisciplinary research publication |
| Subtitle (English): | the impact of classmates on |
| Publisher: | Springer Science |
| Place of publishing: | New York |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of first publication: | 2020/06/11 |
| Publication year: | 2020 |
| Release date: | 2022/11/30 |
| Tag: | adolescence; development; gender; longitudinal; multilevel; prosocial behavior |
| Volume: | 49 |
| Issue: | 9 |
| Number of pages: | 15 |
| First page: | 1849 |
| Last Page: | 1863 |
| Funding institution: | transnational E-RARE grant `CCMCURE (DFG)European Commission [SFB958]; E-RARE [ERL 138397]; Canadian; Institutes for Health ResearchCanadian Institutes of Health Research; (CIHR) [PJT 153000]; the E-RARE grant `CCMCURE |
| Organizational units: | Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Sozialwissenschaften / Fachgruppe Soziologie |
| DDC classification: | 3 Sozialwissenschaften / 30 Sozialwissenschaften, Soziologie / 300 Sozialwissenschaften |
| Peer review: | Referiert |
| Publishing method: | Open Access / Hybrid Open-Access |
| License (German): |  CC-BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
