Belonging contributes to compassion: A longitudinal study of middle school students' prosocial competencies

Crucial skills for early adolescents to develop include respecting people from different backgrounds, showing empathy and compassion, and making ethical decisions in challenging situations. This exploratory study aims to understand the extent to which students' perceptions of teacher caring and belonging related to changes in their self-reported prosocial competencies (i.e., cultural respect, empathy, compassion, integrity)? We conducted a multilevel longitudinal analysis with diverse sample of early adolescents from nine schools in four U.S. cities in their first two years of middle school (n = 186; M_age = 10.91 years). Results indicate that school experiences are correlated with prosocial competencies at the beginning of middle school. Yet only sense of belonging in the school community was positively associated with the rate of development of compassion over two years of middle school. Implications for promoting school conditions that support students' development of prosocial competencies are discussed.