Drummond, Jesse
(2017)
THE ROLE OF EARLY CARE AND EDUCATION SETTINGS IN PROSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT ACROSS INFANCY, TODDLERHOOD, AND EARLY CHILDHOOD.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
In their first few years of life, children develop prosocial behavior during everyday affective interactions with others, both within and outside their home environments. Early childcare and education (ECE) settings may be especially influential, but the mechanisms of prosocial development in these settings remain unknown. Three studies aim to inform our understanding of the social mechanisms of prosocial development in ECE contexts. Study 1 posits a structure-process-outcome model of prosocial development and explores how ECE structural and process characteristics predict the emergence of prosocial behavior at 24 months; Study 2 examines bidirectional associations between prosocial behavior and ECE caregiving across the third year; and Study 3 determines whether experiences in ECE contexts in toddlerhood predict prosocial behavior at school entry and across elementary school.
Study 1 revealed warm and positive caregiving at 15 months, but not caregiver beliefs about childrearing, to be a robust predictor of prosocial behavior at 24 months. Warm and positive caregiving was higher in in-home and family daycare settings than in centers, and in ECE settings with lower caregiver-child ratios and smaller group sizes, but was not associated with caregiver education or training. Study 2 found prosocial behavior to increase from 24 to 36 months and show moderate relative stability. Warm and positive caregiving at 24 months did not explain change in prosocial behavior from 24 to 36 months, but prosocial behavior at 24 months did account for some of the change in warm and positive caregiving over the third year, suggesting that children who exhibit higher levels of prosocial behavior elicit more warm and positive caregiving from their caregivers. Study 3 demonstrated that levels of prosocial behavior remained flat across elementary school, and found that prosocial behavior at 36 months predicted prosocial behavior at school entry, such that children who were more prosocial in toddlerhood were also more prosocial in elementary school. Together, these findings begin to chart the developmental course of prosocial behavior from emergence through late childhood and underscore the important and nuanced role that early childcare settings play in the expression and development of prosociality across the lifespan.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
21 June 2017 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
17 March 2017 |
| Approval Date: |
21 June 2017 |
| Submission Date: |
7 April 2017 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Number of Pages: |
120 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Psychology |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Prosocial development, moral development, early childhood education, prosocial behavior, caregiving |
| Date Deposited: |
21 Jun 2017 13:07 |
| Last Modified: |
21 Jun 2017 13:07 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/31330 |
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