Longitudinal associations between youth prosocial behavior and dimensions of psychopathology

Background

Studies suggest that prosocial behavior, having high empathy and engaging in behaviors intended to benefit others, may predict mental health or vice versa; however, these findings have been mixed. The purpose of the current study was to examine the bidirectional relationships between prosocial behavior and dimensions of psychopathology in children.

Methods

The relationships between prosocial behavior and four dimensions of psychopathology (general psychopathology, internalizing symptoms, conduct problems, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms) were examined longitudinally in children 9–12 years of age from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (N = 9122). We used a random intercept cross-lagged panel model to distinguish between stable, trait-like (between-person) and time-dependent (within-person) fluctuations across a 24-month period.

Results

Between-person results revealed that prosocial behavior was negatively associated with general psychopathology and conduct problems while being positively associated with internalizing symptoms. Within-person results demonstrated that, out of four possible directional paths tested, one was significant. This path showed that greater general psychopathology and conduct problems at the first-year follow-up predicted fewer prosocial behaviors at the second-year follow-up, although the effect size was small. In contrast, prosocial behavior did not predict psychopathology dimensions for any year.

Conclusions

The results of this study suggest that prosocial behaviors have stable associations with psychopathology across preadolescence; however, evidence of a directional association in which psychopathology predicts fewer prosocial behaviors in the future was only modest.