Empathy and Creativity as Foundations and Predictors of How Prosocial
Behavior Develops in Preschool Age Children
Abstract
Prosocial behavior is defined as actions intended to benefit others
regardless of potential gains the person performing the actions or
behaviors may receive. Prosocial creativity is described as an ability
to produce a solution for someone’s problem in an effective, original,
and convenient way. This study mainly investigated predictors of
prosocial behavior (e.g., prosocial decision-making and prosocial
creativity) in 3-to-5-year-old children and explored the role of
demographics on empathy and moral behavior. The children completed a
series of child appropriate computerized standardized picture-based
tasks to evaluate their creativity, empathy, moral development,
prosocial decision-making, and prosocial creativity. Parents completed
questionnaires on their children’s prosocial skills and empathy, while
researchers used the children’s task performance to determine their
prosocial behavior and creativity levels. Binary and ordinal logistic
regression indicated that children’s age, creativity, and cognitive
empathy played an important role in prosocial decision-making and
prosocial creativity. These elements likely construct the foundation of
children’s prosocial behavior. Moral behavior was also important for
prosocial decision-making, which was a precondition for prosocial
creativity. A developmental pattern was also found for the emergence of
empathy and moral behaviors, suggesting that these abilities may mature
over time or may be learned as children mature.