ERIC Number: EJ1469517
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Jun
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1750-8592
EISSN: EISSN-1750-8606
Available Date: 2024-08-07
The Development of Prosocial Risk-Taking Behavior: Mechanisms and Opportunities
Child Development Perspectives, v19 n2 p63-71 2025
Many young people are inclined toward risk taking and also toward helping other people. "Prosocial risk taking" is a term that can describe different ways that youth provide significant instrumental and emotional support to family members, friends, and strangers, even when it involves a personal risk. In this article, we review research about different types of prosocial risk taking and highlight examples, emphasizing a developmental perspective by examining change across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Research to date suggests that young people are more likely to engage in prosocial risk taking when they are more tolerant of uncertainty, have greater sensation-seeking, perspective-taking, and empathy, and when they are motivated by reputational concerns. Individual differences in prosocial risk-taking behavior depend on youth's access to opportunities to explore, practice, and experience positive social feedback. Providing opportunities for youth to direct their risk-taking tendencies toward prosocial outlets may help minimize risks to their psychosocial health and promote individual and community well-being.
Descriptors: Risk, Prosocial Behavior, Child Development, Developmental Stages, Family Relationship, Friendship, Adolescent Development, Young Adults, Cognitive Style, Self Concept, Perspective Taking, Reputation, Empathy, Individual Differences, Feedback (Response), Well Being, Learning Experience
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Information Analyses
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1K12TR004384
Author Affiliations: 1Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, USA; 2The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA