1. Participants and Procedures
A cross ethnic group study of the relations amongst cultural values, parenting practices and youth prosocial behaviors
L. Diego Conejo1, Gustavo Carlo1, & George Knight2
1Department of Human Development and Family Science, University of Missouri – Columbia
2Department of Psychology, Arizona State University
Table 1. Correlation matrix and descriptive statistics for the study variables
Abstract
Methods
The relation between cultural values and prosocial behavior has been demonstrated in previous research. However, there is a lack of understanding of the possible mechanisms by which those cultural values can have an impact on prosocial behavior. This study proposes that parental disciplining practices could be candidate mechanism to help understand the links between cultural values and helping behavior. Participants were early adolescents (207 Mexican Americans, 108 European Americans). Positive induction but not punitiveness mediated these relations for at least one type of prosocial behavior.
Participants and Procedures
207 Mexican Americans (MA) (102 males, mean age= years, SD=.83)
108 European American (EA) youth (54 males, mean age = years, SD=.77)
Mean mothers’ education (in years) = 14.5 (EA), 8.5 (MA); Mean fathers’ education = 14.9 (EA), 8.7 (MA)
Participants were contacted at public schools in the Southwest region of the United States
Interviews were conducted at their homes, mothers and children were interviewed individually
Measures
Importance of religion. A subscale from the Mexican American Cultural Values Scale (MACVS, Knight et al., 2010). αs (7 items) = .77 for MAs and .89 for EAs
Parental Disciplining Practices (PDP). Developed by Ingoldsby et al., 2003, this measure taps into Positive Induction (positive reinforcement and reasoning, i.e., "your mother explains to you how good you should feel when you do what is right”), and Punitiveness (harsh discipline such as corporal punishment and love withdrawal, i.e., “Your mother hits you when she thinks you are doing something wrong.”) αs for induction (11 items) and punitiveness (14 items) were .83 and .79 for MAs and .80 and . 82 for EAs respectively.
Prosocial Tendencies Measure-Revised (PTM-R). Carlo et al. (2003) reviewed and adapted this measure to be used with adolescents and measure how likely they are to engage in six different types of prosocial behavior (dire, emotional, compliant, altruistic, anonymous, public). αs ranged from.52 (two-item scale) to .78 for MA, .57 to .83 for EA This scale assesses prosocial behaviors across a variety of situations and motivations.
Note. PB = Prosocial Behavior, SD = standard deviation. Correlation coefficients above the diagonal are for
Latino youth
Results
Introduction
Multi-group path analyses (Figure 1, Table 1 for descriptive statistics) demonstrated an appropriate goodness of fit, χ2(8) =14.45, p=.07, AGFI=.99, CFI=95, TLI=.92, and RMSEA=.07 ( ).
Inductions were linked to emotional, dire, compliant and anonymous helping. Material success was positively linked to punitiveness, anonymous and public helping, but negatively related to altruistic helping. Punitiveness was only related positively to public helping.
Indirect effect tests showed that for both groups the effects of religiosity were significantly mediated by inductions for compliant helping (denoted by dotted lines in Fig. 1).
Only for Latinos: Religiosity was positively related to anonymous, altruistic and public helping. These differences were tested using Chi Square Difference Tests (CSDT).
Only for EA: The path from religiousness to dire helping was mediated by inductions, however this difference was not confirmed by the (CSDT).
Latino youth living in the US are expected to experience dual cultural adaptation processes that can affect the adolescents’ cultural knowledge, behaviors, attitudes, values and subsequent behaviors (Garcia Coll et al. 1996).
Several traditional cultural values have been identified as linked to prosocial behaviors (actions intended to benefit others), including religiousness and material success (Knight et al., 2010).
Although there is empirical evidence that such values are associated with prosocial behaviors (Armenta et al., 2011), little is known regarding the intervening mechanisms.
Scholars have long noted the importance of parental disciplinary practices in predicting prosocial behaviors (Eisenberg et al., 2006). Whereas inductive practices have been positively related to prosocial behaviors, punitiveness is generally negatively related to such behaviors.
Hypotheses:
Endorsement of religiosity may foster more inductive practices and mitigate punitive practices.
Parents who endorse material success may have higher expectations for material wealth and be less likely to use inductive practices.
Parental disciplinary practices would mediate the relations between cultural values and prosocial behavior.
Figure 1. Multi-group model for the effects of religiosity and material success on prosocial behavior
mediated by parental disciplinary styles
Discussion
Research has shown that cultural values are related to prosocial behavior amongst Latino adolescents (Armenta et al. 2011). The present study is consistent with those previous results, and extends the literature by exploring the effects of parenting in the relation between cultural values and helping behavior.
The findings from this study suggest that induction practices, but not punitiveness, are a mechanism by which cultural values have an indirect effect on at least one type of helping behavior (i.e., compliant prosocial behavior).
Furthermore, the positive relations of induction practices, and the negative relations of punitiveness with prosocial behaviors, are consistent with previous studies (Eisenberg et al., 2006).
As a whole, the present findings contribute to the mounting evidence suggesting the plausibility of social cognitive models to explain prosocial behavior, highlighting the importance of cultural, parenting and individual differences (Carlo et al., 2010).
For further information contact the first author at
Funding for the project was provided by grants from the National Science Foundation to Gustavo Carlo (BNS ) and George Knight (BNS ).
Note. *** = <.001, ** = <.01, * = <.05, PB= Prosocial Behavior . Only paths with at least one significant regression
weight are shown. Covariances not shown. Estimates before the slash are for Latino Youth