Personal values and sustained attention as predictors of children's helping behavior in middle childhood

Kinneret Misgav; Reut Shachnai; Lior Abramson; Ariel Knafo-Noam; Ella Daniel

doi:10.1111/jopy.12773

Personal values and sustained attention as predictors of children's helping behavior in middle childhood

Kinneret Misgav, Reut Shachnai, Lior Abramson, Ariel Knafo-Noam, Ella Daniel

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: This study tested the effect of personal values (motivation) and sustained attention (cognitive ability) on children's helping behavior. Method: Children (N = 162, age range 8–9 years, mean = 8.81, SD = 0.43) completed value ranking and go/no-go tasks, and their helping behavior was examined. Results: Children who valued self-transcendence over self-enhancement helped more than others. Surprisingly, children's lack of sustained attention was associated with more helping among those who valued self-transcendence over self-enhancement or openness-to-change over conservation values. Valuing both self-transcendence and openness-to-change was also associated with more helping. Conclusions: Children are more likely to help others if they value self-transcendence and openness to change. Notably, children's tendency to act upon these values may be facilitated (rather than obstructed by) low attention skills.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	773-788
Number of pages	16
Journal	Journal of Personality
Volume	91
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12773
State	Published - Jun 2023
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Personality published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Funding

The authors thank Hen Naveh-Arbel and Chen Limoni for coordinating the data collection of this study project, Andrei Cimpian (NYU) who introduced us to the intuitive prosociality hypothesis and literature and Lilach Shalev-Mevorach (TAU) who advised us on attention measures and literature. Finally, the authors wish to express their appreciation to all the parents and children participating in the study. This research was supported by a starting grant from the European Research Council (grant number: 240994) to Ariel Knafo‐Noam.

Funders	Funder number
Lilach Shalev-Mevorach
European Commission	240994
Tel Aviv University

Keywords

helping
middle childhood
prosocial behavior
sustained attention
values

Access to Document

10.1111/jopy.12773

Cite this

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title = "Personal values and sustained attention as predictors of children's helping behavior in middle childhood",

abstract = "Objective: This study tested the effect of personal values (motivation) and sustained attention (cognitive ability) on children's helping behavior. Method: Children (N = 162, age range 8–9 years, mean = 8.81, SD = 0.43) completed value ranking and go/no-go tasks, and their helping behavior was examined. Results: Children who valued self-transcendence over self-enhancement helped more than others. Surprisingly, children's lack of sustained attention was associated with more helping among those who valued self-transcendence over self-enhancement or openness-to-change over conservation values. Valuing both self-transcendence and openness-to-change was also associated with more helping. Conclusions: Children are more likely to help others if they value self-transcendence and openness to change. Notably, children's tendency to act upon these values may be facilitated (rather than obstructed by) low attention skills.",

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author = "Kinneret Misgav and Reut Shachnai and Lior Abramson and Ariel Knafo-Noam and Ella Daniel",

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year = "2023",

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AU - Daniel, Ella

PY - 2023/6

Y1 - 2023/6

N2 - Objective: This study tested the effect of personal values (motivation) and sustained attention (cognitive ability) on children's helping behavior. Method: Children (N = 162, age range 8–9 years, mean = 8.81, SD = 0.43) completed value ranking and go/no-go tasks, and their helping behavior was examined. Results: Children who valued self-transcendence over self-enhancement helped more than others. Surprisingly, children's lack of sustained attention was associated with more helping among those who valued self-transcendence over self-enhancement or openness-to-change over conservation values. Valuing both self-transcendence and openness-to-change was also associated with more helping. Conclusions: Children are more likely to help others if they value self-transcendence and openness to change. Notably, children's tendency to act upon these values may be facilitated (rather than obstructed by) low attention skills.

AB - Objective: This study tested the effect of personal values (motivation) and sustained attention (cognitive ability) on children's helping behavior. Method: Children (N = 162, age range 8–9 years, mean = 8.81, SD = 0.43) completed value ranking and go/no-go tasks, and their helping behavior was examined. Results: Children who valued self-transcendence over self-enhancement helped more than others. Surprisingly, children's lack of sustained attention was associated with more helping among those who valued self-transcendence over self-enhancement or openness-to-change over conservation values. Valuing both self-transcendence and openness-to-change was also associated with more helping. Conclusions: Children are more likely to help others if they value self-transcendence and openness to change. Notably, children's tendency to act upon these values may be facilitated (rather than obstructed by) low attention skills.

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Personal values and sustained attention as predictors of children's helping behavior in middle childhood

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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Keywords

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