Prosocial development across childhood: Towards a comprehensive mechanistic framework

人类是一个巨大的社会性物种，愿意与他人分享、帮助和安慰他人，但往往不会立即受益。这种亲社会行为已被证明在一生中都会发生，并在发育早期就开始了。科学家们一直在试图理解这种关键的人类能力是如何在儿童时期首次出现和发展的，但由于以下几个原因，进展受到了破坏：1)未能区分不同形式的亲社会行为；2)使用不同的方法研究亲社会行为；3)零散的方法和对有限年龄段的狭隘关注。我们的合作项目将通过整合几个项目来弥补这一点，这些项目侧重于跨越儿童早期和中期的异常大的年龄范围，并结合使用针对所有儿童的相同方法以及针对小组的特定方法来调查各种亲社会行为在童年过程中是如何变化的。我们的第一个联合项目将侧重于两种典型亲社会行为的共同和独特的机制，即在3-7岁之间分享和帮助，以及心理发展的哪些方面支持亲社会发展的出现和变化。利用所谓的加速纵向设计，我们能够明确地研究儿童时期亲社会行为的发展轨迹。重要的是，这一项目将在所有三个地点(每个地点140名儿童，总共420名儿童)进行，这将使我们能够一起分析数据，并测试观察到的效果的可复制性。我们的第二个项目解决了要求儿童亲社会的不同情况带来的挑战这一重要问题(即，理解某人伤害了自己，意识到自己可以做什么，并有动力实施该行动)。如果孩子在这种情况下不主动提供帮助，这可能是因为他们不理解问题所在，或者是因为做出反应很困难或令人痛苦。通过在180名3-5岁儿童中使用不同的亲社会措施，包括假设情景，本项目将能够讲述亲社会行为发展变化的真实本质。我们的第三个项目重点关注社会化在儿童早期亲社会行为塑造中的关键作用，以及儿童与父母之间的互动如何促进这一作用。本项目将关注亲子关系质量的作用，以及父母在互动中使用的话语。我们的第四个项目关注了138名4-6岁的儿童，这个项目将能够看到随着时间的推移孩子与父母互动的相互影响，从而解决发展动态这一关键问题。我们的第四个项目专注于140名5-7岁儿童如何处理亲社会的代价(即放弃时间或其他资源)。重要的是，这个项目将使用大脑成像和计算模型来观察儿童关心他人的潜在神经过程，以及关心他人的程度如何可能影响儿童自我调节的重要性。这个项目将阐明亲社会发展的神经机制。这一合作项目采用了高功率和优化的研究设计，在年龄范围和大小上前所未有的样本中采用了亲社会行为和潜在机制的综合任务组，并将其与专门的子项目联系起来，检查儿童发展过程中不同阶段的不同机制，这一合作项目为我们对亲社会发展的理解提供了一个阶段性的改变。这个项目的更广泛的社会贡献是至关重要的，因为只有当我们了解亲社会行为的基本机制以及它们如何在童年期间发生变化时，我们才能促进和鼓励其发展。

Humans are a hugely social species, willing to share with, help and comfort others often with no immediate benefit. Such prosocial behaviour has been shown to occur throughout life and to begin very early in development. Scientists have been trying to understand how this critical human ability first emerges and develops during childhood, yet progress has been marred for several reasons: 1) a failure to differentiate between functionally distinct forms of prosocial behaviour; 2) the use of different methods to study prosocial behaviour; 3) a piecemeal approach and narrow focus on limited age bands. Our collaborative project will remedy this through an integration of several projects focussing on an uncommonly large age range spanning early and middle childhood, and using a combination of both identical methods for all children as well as specific methods for subgroups to investigate how a variety of prosocial behaviours change over the course of childhood. Our first joint project will focus on common and distinct mechanisms for two prototypical varieties of prosocial behaviour, namely sharing and helping across 3-7 years of age and which aspects of psychological development support the emergence and change of prosocial development. Using a so-called accelerated longitudinal design, which compares the same individuals across development, we are able to definitively study developmental trajectories of prosocial behaviour during childhood. Importantly, this project will be carried out at all three sites (each 140 children; total 420 children), which will allow us to both analyse data together as well as test for replicability of observed effects. Our second project tackles the important question of the challenges posed by different situations requiring children to be prosocial (i.e. understanding that someone has hurt themselves, realising what one could do, and being motivated to carry out that action). If a child doesn't offer to help in such a situation, this could be either because they do not understand the problem or because producing the response is difficult or distressing. By using different prosocial measures varying in complexity and including hypothetical scenarios in 180 3-5 year old children, this project will be able to speak to the true nature of developmental change in prosocial behaviour.Our third project focusses on the crucial role of socialisation in shaping prosocial behaviour in early childhood and how this is promoted by interactions between children and parents. This project will focus on the roles of quality of parent-child relationships, as well as the discourse used by the parents in their interactions. Looking at 138 children aged 4-6, this project will be able to look at reciprocal influences of child-parent interactions over time and thus tackle the critical question of developmental dynamics.Our fourth project focusses on how children process the cost of being prosocial (i.e. giving up time or other resources) in 140 5-7 year olds. Importantly, this project will use brain imaging and computational modelling to look at the underlying neural process of how much children care about others, and how the extent of caring about others might influence the importance of self-regulation in children. This project will shed light on the neural mechanisms of prosocial development. Using highly powered and optimal study designs adopting a comprehensive task battery of prosocial behaviour and underlying mechanism in a sample unprecedented in age range and size and linking this to dedicated subprojects examining distinct mechanisms at various points during child development, this collaborative project provides a step-change in our understanding of prosocial development. The wider societal contribution of this project is critical, as it is only when we understand the underlying mechanisms of prosocial behaviour and how they change over childhood, that we can foster and encourage its development.