Children's help‐seeking expectations during preschool years: The effects of situational stress levels and help‐seekers’ competence

IF 1.6 4区心理学 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL

Social Development Pub Date : 2024-03-11 DOI:10.1111/sode.12737

Chenglong Jia, Xuan Xia, Yuan Shen, Jingmei Wang, Jinliang Qin

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Help‐seeking is a common strategy for children to cope with daily stress. However, little is known as to how children make help‐seeking expectations during early development. The current study examined the effects of situational stress levels and help‐seekers’ competence on children's expectations of help‐seeking behavior and willingness from age 4 to 6. We manipulated situational stress levels and help‐seekers’ competence in a social expectation task. Children were tested to determine their expectations of help‐seeking behavior and willingness. Two hundred and twenty‐one Han Chinese children aged 4–6 from a city in East China participated in this study. We found that 5‐ to 6‐year‐olds expected the incompetent help‐seekers to seek support more than the competent help‐seekers regardless of situational stress levels. However, 4‐ to 5‐year‐olds made expectations as such only in the low‐stress condition. These results suggest that both situational stress levels and help‐seekers’ competence influence 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children's help‐seeking expectations, and the influence varies across ages.

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学龄前儿童的求助期望：情境压力水平和求助者能力的影响

寻求帮助是儿童应对日常压力的一种常见策略。然而，人们对儿童在早期成长过程中如何做出寻求帮助的预期却知之甚少。本研究考察了情境压力水平和求助者能力对 4 到 6 岁儿童求助行为和求助意愿预期的影响。我们在一项社会期望任务中操纵了情境压力水平和求助者的能力。我们对儿童进行了测试，以确定他们对求助行为和求助意愿的期望。来自华东某市的 221 名 4-6 岁汉族儿童参与了这项研究。我们发现，无论情境压力水平如何，5 到 6 岁的儿童都期望无能的求助者比有能力的求助者更愿意寻求帮助。然而，只有在低压力条件下，4 到 5 岁的幼儿才会做出这样的预期。这些结果表明，情境压力水平和求助者的能力都会影响 4 到 6 岁儿童的求助期望，而且这种影响在不同年龄段是不同的。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Social Development PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL-

CiteScore

3.80

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Social Development is a major international journal dealing with all aspects of children"s social development as seen from a psychological stance. Coverage includes a wide range of topics such as social cognition, peer relationships, social interaction, attachment formation, emotional development and children"s theories of mind. The main emphasis is placed on development in childhood, but lifespan, cross-species and cross-cultural perspectives enhancing our understanding of human development are also featured.