Proud to help when i should: Children's positive emotions following sharing decisions with a needy versus not-needy other.

We examined children's distinct positive emotions (pride vs. joy) following sharing decisions while manipulating the recipient's neediness. Whereas both emotions are positive and desirable, pride is experienced when adhering to social goals and expectations. Therefore, we hypothesized that, with age, as children become more aware of their society's norms and internalize them, pride would be more positively related to sharing situations that highlight social norms and expectations (i.e., sharing with a poor child). We examined this hypothesis between two age groups (7-9 and 10-12 years) while assessing children's predictions of others' emotions following a decision to share in hypothetical scenarios (Study 1) and their self-reports following actual sharing decisions (Study 2). We found that older children (10-12 years), but not younger children (7-9 years), predicted more intense pride for protagonists who had decided to share their endowment with a needy other (recipient in poverty) than with a not-needy other. This effect was mediated by older children's perception of the motivation to share with a needy other (what one should do). A similar pattern was found for overall positive feelings (pride and joy) in children's self-reports following an actual sharing decision.

Sharing and belonging: Children's social status and their sharing behavior with in-group and out-group members.

The association between children's social-status within their peer-group and their prosociality was examined among fourth and sixth graders (N = 276), using sociometric nominations, and actual sharing with a fellow in-group member, or a member of an out-group. Results show an overall increase in sharing with age, and an overall correlation between children's social status among peers and their sharing behavior-however, across both age groups, this association was significant only in the in-group condition, not when the recipient child was an out-group member. Specifically, less accepted children behaved in a less prosocial manner only toward in-group members, not toward out-group ones. This suggests that situational factors and characteristics of the prospective recipient play an important part in the degree to which less socially accepted children are willing to act prosocially. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Too Lonely to Help: Early Adolescents' Social Connections and Willingness to Help During COVID-19 Lockdown.

We examined early adolescents' social connections, their emotional state, and their willingness to act prosocially during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. In two studies-comparing fourth to sixth graders during lockdown with a similar sample in pre-pandemic times, and longitudinally examining the same sample of participants, twice-we found that overall, early adolescents' emotional state during lockdown was significantly worse than in normal times (before the pandemic). This decline was explained by the participants' ratings of their loneliness, which was linked to their social (virtual) connections during lockdown. Importantly, participants with fewer social connections (in the virtual world as well as in face-to-face interactions) were less willing to help a lonely peer-even though they experienced similar pangs of loneliness.

Happy to help-if it's not too sad: The effect of mood on helping identifiable and unidentifiable victims.

People's preference to help single victims about whom they have some information is known as the identifiable victim effect. Previous research suggests that this effect stems from an intensive emotional reaction toward specific victims. The findings of two studies consistently show that the identifiability effect is attenuated when the subject is in a positive mood. Study 1 (along with a pilot study) demonstrate causal relationships between mood and identifiability, while using different manipulations to induce moods. In both studies, donations to identified victims exceeded donations to unidentified people-in the Negative Mood manipulations-while participants in the Positive Mood conditions showed no such preference. In Study 2, individual differences in people's moods interacted with the recipient's identifiability in predicting donations, demonstrating that the identifiability effect is attenuated by a positive mood. In addition, emotional reactions toward the victims replicate the donation pattern, suggesting emotions as a possible explanation for the observed donation pattern.

Who's more generous than me? Children's self-evaluation of their prosociality in normative social comparisons.

We examined the development of children's self-evaluation of their prosociality in normative social comparisons (with an average peer). Results suggest that when comparing themselves with an average other in the abstract (i.e., without reference to actual behavior), elementary school children (aged 6-12 years) demonstrated the better than average (BTA) effect of perceiving themselves as more prosocial than their average peer (Study 1). However, when they evaluated other children's prosociality (sharing), after experiencing an actual opportunity to share their endowment with others (Studies 2 and 3), the younger children (at first-grade level) exhibited the worse than average (WTA) effect in that they assumed that their peers would act more generously than themselves. Task difficulty predicted relative self-evaluations across all examined ages, such that greater difficulty was related to a lower BTA effect (or a greater WTA effect). However, whereas the older children used abstract difficulty perceptions to evaluate themselves relative to others, the younger children's evaluations were affected only by the difficulty that they themselves experienced. In all age groups, the BTA effect was driven mostly by participants who were above the mean in the extent of their sharing, whereas the WTA effect was driven by those who shared below the mean of their age group.

The development of prosociality among Christian Arab children in Israel: The role of children's household religiosity and of the recipient's neediness.

We examined the development of sharing behavior of children (aged 6 to 12) within the unique, minority population of Christian Arab children in Israel (N = 319). Children had the opportunity to share candy with a needy or non-needy recipient. Parents' level of religiosity was assessed using the Duke University Religion Index questionnaire (DUREL). Results replicate previous research that focused primarily on the majority populations of the societies in question, by demonstrating an overall increase in the incidence of sharing with age. Furthermore-as previously found among the majority of Jewish children in Israel-the recipient's neediness moderated the association between household religiosity and sharing, such that religiosity predicted greater levels of sharing only when the recipient was described as "poor" (a child whose parents have little money), not when the prospective recipient was not specified as such. Finally, the neediness of the recipient increased the incidence of sharing regardless of age, suggesting that in this unique minority population, sensitivity to the recipient's neediness emerges already at the age of 6. We discuss possible mechanisms behind this developmental pattern. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Feel good, do good? Subjective well-being and sharing behavior among children.

The current study examined the association between children's subjective well-being (SWB) and their sharing behavior. School children (second and fifth graders) were interviewed in private and had an opportunity to share candy with a recipient under one of two between-participants conditions: Perceived-High Obligation (a recipient in poverty) and Perceived-Low Obligation (a temporarily needy recipient). Results provide initial evidence of an increased association between SWB and sharing decisions with age; whereas SWB was not significantly correlated with the incidence of sharing by younger children (second graders), it was a positive predictor of sharing behavior among fifth graders. Manipulating the perceived obligation to share (by emphasizing the causes beyond the recipient's need), we found that higher levels of SWB were linked to sharing only in the Perceived-Low Obligation condition. Children with lower SWB behaved as expected by the norm and shared to a similar degree as children with higher SWB when sharing felt obligatory. However, when sharing was less obligatory, higher levels of SWB were linked to higher levels of sharing.

The association between religiousness and children's altruism: The role of the recipient's neediness.

We examined the role of the recipient's neediness as a moderator in the relation between children's household religiosity and prosocial behavior. Examining the behavior of children (2nd and 5th graders) from religious and nonreligious households in the dictator game, we found that the extent of sharing did not differ significantly between the 2 groups when the recipient was not described as needy. However, when the recipient was presented as a poor (needy) child, the religious group exhibited significantly more sharing behavior. Although the religious children's tendency to share more with needy recipients compared with the not-needy ones appeared already in the 2nd grade, it increased with age as children grew and internalized the norms of their immediate society. Among the major religions, the recipient's neediness is an important variable in the decision to give, which shapes religious children's prosocial behavior from an early age. Thus, future research should take this moderator into account when studying the relation between religiousness and prosociality in general and in the development of prosociality in children in particular. (PsycINFO Database Record

Sense of coherence and sense of community as coping resources of religious adolescents before and after the disengagement from the Gaza Strip.

In August 2005, all of the Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip were permanently evacuated, implementing a political decision of the Israeli government. Employing the salutogenic approach, this study explores individual and community coping resources - sense of coherence and sense of community - among adolescents who were displaced from their homes. We examined the way these coping resources operated in three stages: before the disengagement from Gaza, a few months after the event, and five years after the disengagement. Data were gathered among religious adolescents who had grown up in small Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip. Adolescents aged 12-18 filled out self-reported questionnaires, evaluating state anxiety and state anger as stress reactions, and sense of coherence and sense of community as coping resources. Results suggest that both sense of coherence and sense of community were weakened immediately after the disengagement. However, sense of coherence has recovered five years after the event. Furthermore, during the two stages after the disengagement, sense of coherence and sense of community had more explanatory power of stress reactions than during the acute state. Results are discussed against the backdrop of the salutogenic model, including practical implications for different interventions which should be applied in various states of stress.