Although prosocial behavior has been regarded as a critical predictor of positive peer relationships and teacher–student relationships, more interventional studies are needed to more confidently determine causality. Dizi Gui instruction, a Confucian classical approach, was used in the current research as a prosocial behavior intervention to test whether it would improve Chinese adolescents’ peer relationships and teacher–student relationships through the increase of prosocial behavior. Four classes of fifth grade students (N = 242, 118 males, 124 females) participated. The results showed that the Dizi Gui instruction effectively increased students’ prosocial behavior, which in turn, improved their peer relationships and teacher–student relationships.

The association between prosocial behavior and adolescents’ social class—defined as one’s parents’ position in society assessed in terms of education, income, and occupation status—is far from conclusive and the moderators of the link have not been fully researched. Using data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (NICHD SECCYD) (N = 1,058), this study investigated the association between social class and 5^th graders’ prosocial behavior, as well as the moderating roles of maternal sensitivity, positive family emotional expressiveness, teacher-student relationship, and peer support. The current research found that social class was positively associated with adolescents’ prosocial behavior, and the positive association between social class and prosocial behavior was less pronounced for adolescents with higher levels of maternal sensitivity, positive family emotional expressiveness, teacher-student relationship, and peer support than those with lower levels of maternal sensitivity, positive family emotional expressiveness, teacher-student relationship, and peer support. The present findings yield evidence on the negative influence of low social class on adolescents’ prosocial behavior, but this effect would be buffered by supportive and healthy relationships in family and school contexts.

The current study investigated the effect of moral stories in promoting kindergarteners' sharing behaviour. One hundred eight children were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: two experimental conditions (a moral story with a sharing model and good consequences and a moral story with a selfish model and bad consequences) and a control condition (a nonmoral story). The results showed that children in the experimental groups shared more than children in the control group. In addition, comparing the two experimental groups, children in the sharing-good consequences condition shared more than children in the selfish-bad consequences condition. Further, interviews were conducted to provide in-depth understanding of common and different influences of the two moral stories on children's sharing behaviour. The implications for research and practice were discussed.

The current research used longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1104) to examine the developmental cascades of hostile attribution bias, aggressive behavior, and peer victimization in preadolescence. With the use of autoregressive latent trajectory model, this study disaggregated the between- and within-person effects. Between-person effects confirmed that hostile attribution bias, aggressive behavior, and peer victimization were positively associated with each other. Within-person effects showed that an increase from one’s own typical growth trajectory of hostile attribution bias was predictive of a subsequent decrease from the individual’s own trajectory of aggressive behavior; an increase from one’s own typical growth trajectory of aggressive behavior was predictive of a subsequent decrease from the individual’s own trajectory of peer victimization; an increase from one’s own typical growth trajectory of peer victimization was predictive of a subsequent increase from the individual’s own trajectory of hostile attribution bias. Implications for developmental cascade models, progressions, and preventive interventions were discussed.

According to the theory of internal working model, belief in altruistic human nature positively influences prosocial behavior. However, the precise influencing mechanism remains unclear. Based on the determinants of human behavior theory and self-efficacy theory, we hypothesized that belief in altruistic human nature indirectly influences prosocial behavior through causally linked multiple mediators of prosocial attitude and prosocial self-efficacy. The results of the current research supported our hypothesis and demonstrated that this serial mediation model could be generalized across individualistic and collectivistic cultures.

Ample research has shown that the link between social skills and adolescent depression is significant. However, how the changes in different domains of social skills influence the change in depression from early to middle adolescence remains largely unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, the current research used longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1061) to examine the influences of the changes in cooperation, assertion, responsibility, and self-control on the change in depression from early to middle adolescence. Univariate latent growth modeling showed that, from early to middle adolescence, adolescents experience decreases in cooperation and assertion, increases in responsibility and depression, and stability in self-control. Multivariate latent growth modeling suggested that adolescents who had more increases in responsibility and self-control tended to experience a slower increase in depression from early to middle adolescence; while adolescents who had more decreases in cooperation and assertion tended to experience a faster increase in depression from early to middle adolescence. The results suggested that promoting adolescents social skills might be particularly salient for the prevention of adolescent depression.