Individual, relational, and cultural correlates of U.S. Latino/a college students' prosocial behaviors

Abstract

Prosocial behaviors, or actions intended to benefit others, are important social behaviors that people conduct towards others. These behaviors can be motivated by a host of variables, including individual-level characteristics, relational-level considerations, and culture-specific values. Socioemotive, sociocognitive, and cultural variables have all been studied as important correlates of prosocial behaviors. In addition, maternal and paternal support may play a role in the internalization of these moral motivations. The goal of this study was to test a series of models using both variable-centered and person-centered statistical approaches to investigate how individual-level characteristics, relational-level variables, and culture-specific values both interrelate and simultaneously affect prosocial behaviors. The study used questionnaire measures completed by 250 U.S. Latino/a college students (M age = 21.0 years; 62.0% women). Latent profile analysis and path analysis were used to examine relations among empathic concern, perspective taking, familism, maternal and paternal support, and prosocial behaviors. This research can lend support for culture-specific models of prosocial development that simultaneously account for individual-level, relational-level, and culture-specific characteristics.