The Effects of Perceptions of Parents’ Use of Social and Material Rewards on Prosocial Behaviors in Spanish and U.S. Youth

Abstract

We examined the links between perceived parental use of social and material rewards and prosocial behaviors across youth from two countries. Six hundred forty adolescents (297 girls; X age = 15.32 years) from Valencia, Spain, and 552 adolescents (321 girls; X age = 13.38 years) from the United States completed measures of their perceptions of parental use of rewards, prosocial behaviors, and empathy. Results generally showed that perceived use of social rewards was directly and indirectly positively related to prosocial behaviors via empathic tendencies. In contrast, perceived use of material rewards was directly and indirectly negatively related to prosocial behaviors via empathic tendencies. There were significant differences such that material rewards had relatively more significant relations to prosocial behaviors in U.S. youth than in Spanish youth. Discussion focuses on the generalizability of parenting and prosocial development models across cultures and the relative links of social versus material rewards to prosocial behaviors.