Prevalence and characteristics of infants' prosocial helping strategies between 11 and 20 months of age.

ABSTRACT: Although limited research suggests that infants can behave prosocially even before their first birthdays, the prevalence and characteristics of early prosocial behaviors remain unexplored. Indeed, very few studies of prosocial development have included 12-month-old infants or examined how prosociality changes across the second year, and none has assessed individual differences in prosocial strategy use. This study investigated prosocial helping behaviors in a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of 220 11- to 20-month-olds living in the United States (45.5% female; 61% Black; 67.2% low socioeconomic status). At 12 months (n = 153), > 80% of infants helped an experimenter retrieve out-of-reach items. Modest increases in helping were observed across the second year of life. I

SUBMITTER: Donohue MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11781951 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature