Generalizability of a traditional social cognitive model of prosocial behaviors to U.S. Latino/a youth

Objectives: We hypothesized that parental and peer support, empathy-related traits, and prosocial moral reasoning would positively predict altruistic prosocial behaviors, and negatively predict selfish-motivated prosocial behaviors, in U.S. Latino youth. Method: Three-hundred and 6 U.S. Latina/o adolescents (M age = 15.50 years; SD = .42 years; 46% girls; 81.0% self-identified as U.S. Mexican) from communities in the Northern Great Plains completed measures of parental and peer support, perspective taking and empathic concern, prosocial moral reasoning, and two types of prosocial behaviors. Results: In general, parental support was directly and indirectly related to empathic traits, prosocial moral reasoning, and prosocial behaviors. Peer support was indirectly related to prosocial behaviors via perspective taking, empathic concern, and prosocial moral reasoning. Conclusions: Discussion focuses on the generalizability of traditional models of moral socialization and prosocial development to U.S. Latina/o youth from communities in the Northern Great Plains.