In recent decades, numerous studies have suggested a positive relationship between prosociality and well-being. What remains less clear are (a) what the magnitude of this relationship is, and (b) what the moderators that influence it are. To address these questions, we conducted a meta-analysis to examine the strength of the prosociality to well-being link under different operationalizations, and how a set of theoretical, demographic, and methodological variables moderate the link. While the results revealed a modest overall mean effect size (r = .13, K = 201, N = 198,213) between prosociality and well-being, this masked the substantial variability in the effect as a function of numerous moderators. In particular, the effect of prosociality on eudaimonic well-being was stronger than that on hedonic well-being. Prosociality was most strongly related to psychological functioning-showing a more modest relationship with psychological malfunctioning and physical health. Using prosociality scales was more strongly associated with well-being than using measures of volunteering/helping frequency or status. In addition, informal helping (vs. formal helping) was linked to more well-being benefits. Demographically, younger givers exhibited higher levels of well-being other than physical health, while older and retired givers reported better physical health only. Female givers showed stronger relationships between prosociality and eudaimonic well-being, psychological malfunctioning, and physical health. Methodologically, the magnitude of the link was stronger in studies using primary (vs. secondary) data and with higher methodological rigor (i.e., measurement reliability and validity). We discussed all of these results and implications and suggested directions for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The influences of globalization have permeated various aspects of life in contemporary society, from technical innovations, economic development, and lifestyles, to communication patterns. The present research proposed a construct termed global orientation to denote individual differences in the psychological processes of acculturating to the globalizing world. It encompasses multicultural acquisition as a proactive response and ethnic protection as a defensive response to globalization. Ten studies examined the applicability of global orientations among majority and minority groups, including immigrants and sojourners, in multicultural and relatively monocultural contexts, and across Eastern and Western cultures. Multicultural acquisition is positively correlated with both independent and interdependent self-construals, bilingual proficiency and usage, and dual cultural identifications. Multicultural acquisition is promotion-focused, while ethnic protection is prevention-focused and related to acculturative stress. Global orientations affect individuating and modest behavior over and above multicultural ideology, predict overlap with outgroups over and above political orientation, and predict psychological adaptation, sociocultural competence, tolerance, and attitudes toward ethnocultural groups over and above acculturation expectations/strategies. Global orientations also predict English and Chinese oral presentation performance in multilevel analyses and the frequency and pleasantness of intercultural contact in cross-lagged panel models. We discuss how the psychological study of global orientations contributes to theory and research on acculturation, cultural identity, and intergroup relations.

Parents are the most intimate and proximal influences on a child’s development. Migration-induced parental absence in rural China might pose a considerable threat to the educational development of left-behind children because of insufficient parent–child communication. Despite growing scholarly attention, we know little of the effect of parental migration on either parent–child communication or the educational expectations of rural students of different left-behind status (i.e., left behind by two parents; left behind by one parent; or living with both parents). Drawing upon the longitudinal data of the China Education Panel Survey (N = 2275), this study used a two-step path analysis to examine the interrelations among Chinese rural students’ left-behind status, received parent–child communication, and educational expectations. Parental migration negatively affected parent–child communication, and parent–child communication was positively correlated with rural children’s educational expectations. In addition, left-behind status moderated the association between parent–child communication and rural students’ educational expectations. We conclude that rural students’ left-behind status affects their educational expectations through parent–child communication. These results add to the existing understanding of how parental migration affects rural children’s educational expectations and indicates the protective effect of parent–child communication.

Over the past decades, personality and social psychologists have extensively investigated the role of self-views in individual functioning. Research on world views, however, has been less well studied due to overly specific conceptualizations, and little research about how and why they impact life outcomes. To answer why and how world views matter, we conducted 7 studies to examine the functions, antecedents, and consequences of generalized beliefs about the world, operationalized as social axioms (Leung et al., 2002). This research focused on 2 axiom factors, namely, social cynicism and reward for application. These axioms were found to explain individual differences in self-views over and above personality traits in Hong Kong and U.S. samples (Study 1) and to explain cultural differences in self-views in addition to self-construals among Mainland Chinese, Hong Kong Chinese, East Asian Canadians, and European Canadians (Study 2). Endorsement of social axioms by participants, their parents, and close friends was collected from Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Canada to infer parental and peer influences on world views (Study 3). World views affected psychological well-being through the mediation of positive self-views across 3 age groups, including children, adolescents, and young adults (Study 4) and over time (Study 5). The mediation of negative self-views was through comparative self-criticism rather than internalized self-criticism (Study 6). Holistic thinking moderated the effect of social cynicism on self-views and psychological well-being (Study 7). These results converge to show that world views as a distal force and self-views as a proximal force matter in people's subjective evaluation of their lives. (PsycINFO Database Record

Moderation analysis with latent variables is an important topic in social science research. Although different methods have been proposed for latent moderation analysis in the past three decades, these methods have weaknesses in certain circumstances. We therefore propose the factor score approach as a straightforward and implementation-friendly alternative in latent moderation analysis. This approach has several advantages over other existing methods, such as being able to test higher-order interaction models and interaction-as-outcome models. We compared the empirical performance of the factor score approach and other commonly used methods, namely the unconstrained product indicator approach and the latent moderated structural equation approach, by conducting a simulation study. Results indicated that the factor score approach worked satisfactorily under a range of model conditions. Using these results, we can offer applied researchers some practical guidelines of use for the factor score approach with regard to the subject variable (N/P) ratio and reliability level.