Retrospective Self-Reported Childhood Experiences in Enriched Environments Uniquely Predict Prosocial Behavior and Personality Traits in Adulthood.

IF 1.1 4区 心理学 Q4 PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL
Thomas G McCauley, Michael E McCullough
{"title":"Retrospective Self-Reported Childhood Experiences in Enriched Environments Uniquely Predict Prosocial Behavior and Personality Traits in Adulthood.","authors":"Thomas G McCauley, Michael E McCullough","doi":"10.1177/14747049221110603","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>What features of people's childhood environments go on to shape their prosocial behavior during adulthood? Past studies linking childhood environment to adult prosocial behavior have focused primarily on adverse features, thereby neglecting the possible influence of exposure to enriched environments (e.g., access to material resources, experiences with rich cooperative relationships, and interactions with morally exemplary role models). Here, we expand the investigation of childhood environmental quality to include consideration of enriching childhood experiences and their relation to adult prosociality. In two cross-sectional studies, we found promising evidence that enriched childhood environments are associated with adult moral behavior. In study 1 (<i>N</i> = 1,084 MTurk workers), we adapted an existing measure of enriched childhood environmental quality for retrospective recall of childhood experiences and found that subjects' recollections of their enriched childhood experiences are distinct from their recollections of adverse childhood experiences. In Study 2 (<i>N</i> = 2,208 MTurk workers), we found that a formative composite of subjects' recollections of enriched childhood experiences is positively associated with a variety of morally relevant traits in adulthood, including agreeableness, honesty-humility, altruism, endorsement of the principle of care, empathic responding to the plights of needy others, and charitable donations in an experimental setting, and that these associations held after controlling for childhood environmental adversity, childhood socioeconomic status, sex, and age. We also found evidence suggesting that some, but not all, of the relationship between enrichment and adult prosociality can be explained by a shared genetic correlation. We include a new seven-item measure as an appendix.</p>","PeriodicalId":47499,"journal":{"name":"Evolutionary Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ftp.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pub/pmc/oa_pdf/5a/04/10.1177_14747049221110603.PMC10303491.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Evolutionary Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049221110603","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0

Abstract

What features of people's childhood environments go on to shape their prosocial behavior during adulthood? Past studies linking childhood environment to adult prosocial behavior have focused primarily on adverse features, thereby neglecting the possible influence of exposure to enriched environments (e.g., access to material resources, experiences with rich cooperative relationships, and interactions with morally exemplary role models). Here, we expand the investigation of childhood environmental quality to include consideration of enriching childhood experiences and their relation to adult prosociality. In two cross-sectional studies, we found promising evidence that enriched childhood environments are associated with adult moral behavior. In study 1 (N = 1,084 MTurk workers), we adapted an existing measure of enriched childhood environmental quality for retrospective recall of childhood experiences and found that subjects' recollections of their enriched childhood experiences are distinct from their recollections of adverse childhood experiences. In Study 2 (N = 2,208 MTurk workers), we found that a formative composite of subjects' recollections of enriched childhood experiences is positively associated with a variety of morally relevant traits in adulthood, including agreeableness, honesty-humility, altruism, endorsement of the principle of care, empathic responding to the plights of needy others, and charitable donations in an experimental setting, and that these associations held after controlling for childhood environmental adversity, childhood socioeconomic status, sex, and age. We also found evidence suggesting that some, but not all, of the relationship between enrichment and adult prosociality can be explained by a shared genetic correlation. We include a new seven-item measure as an appendix.

Abstract Image

Abstract Image

Abstract Image

回顾性自述在丰富环境中的童年经历可独特预测成年后的亲社会行为和人格特质。
人们童年环境的哪些特征会影响他们成年后的亲社会行为?过去将童年环境与成年后的亲社会行为联系起来的研究主要集中在不利特征上,从而忽视了接触丰富环境(如获得物质资源、丰富的合作关系经历以及与道德模范榜样的互动)可能产生的影响。在此,我们扩展了对童年环境质量的调查,将丰富的童年经历及其与成人亲社会性的关系纳入考虑范围。在两项横断面研究中,我们发现了丰富的童年环境与成人道德行为相关的有力证据。在研究 1(N = 1,084 MTurk 工作者)中,我们调整了现有的丰富童年环境质量测量方法,用于童年经历的回顾性回忆,结果发现,受试者对丰富童年经历的回忆与对不良童年经历的回忆截然不同。在研究 2(N = 2,208 名 MTurk 工作者)中,我们发现受试者对丰富童年经历的回忆的形成性综合与他们成年后的各种道德相关特质呈正相关,这些特质包括合群性、诚实-谦逊、利他主义、对关爱原则的认可、对有需要的人的困境的移情反应,以及在实验环境中的慈善捐赠,而且在控制了童年环境逆境、童年社会经济地位、性别和年龄之后,这些相关性依然存在。我们还发现,有证据表明,丰富性与成人亲社会性之间的关系可以用共同的遗传相关性来解释,但不是全部。我们在附录中加入了一个新的七项目测量方法。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 求助全文
来源期刊
Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL-
CiteScore
2.20
自引率
6.70%
发文量
22
审稿时长
12 weeks
期刊介绍: Evolutionary Psychology is an open-access peer-reviewed journal that aims to foster communication between experimental and theoretical work on the one hand and historical, conceptual and interdisciplinary writings across the whole range of the biological and human sciences on the other.
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
确定
请完成安全验证×
copy
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
右上角分享
点击右上角分享
0
联系我们:info@booksci.cn Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。 Copyright © 2023 布克学术 All rights reserved.
京ICP备2023020795号-1
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术官方微信