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- Title
Helping, Sharing, and Comforting in Young Children: Links to Individual Differences in Attachment.
- Authors
Beier, Jonathan S.; Gross, Jacquelyn T.; Brett, Bonnie E.; Stern, Jessica A.; Martin, David R.; Cassidy, Jude
- Abstract
Although attachment theory has long posited a link between early experiences of care and children's prosocial behavior, investigations of this association have not embraced the multifaceted nature of prosociality. This study is the first to assess associations between child attachment and independent observations of helping, sharing, and comforting. Attachment quality in 3- to 5-year-old children (N = 137) was linked to all three prosocial behaviors. Additionally, bifactor analyses revealed distinct associations between attachment and children's general prosocial dispositions and their specific abilities to meet the unique challenges of helping and, marginally, comforting. These findings underscore the importance of considering multiple explanations for links between attachment and prosocial behavior and provide novel insights into sources of variation in children's prosociality.
- Subjects
UNITED States; HELPING behavior in children; SHARING in children; ATTACHMENT behavior in children; INDIVIDUAL differences in children; CARING in children; PROSOCIAL behavior; ATTACHMENT theory (Psychology)
- Publication
Child Development, 2019, Vol 90, Issue 2, pe273
- ISSN
0009-3920
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1111/cdev.13100