Prosocial behavior toward family, friends, and strangers: Development of a prosocial behavior scale focused on the recipient of the behavior

Abstract

In the present study, which focused on prosocial behavior toward family, friends, and strangers, a prosocial behavior scale was developed that focused on the recipient of the prosocial acts. A preliminary study done on the Internet confirmed the content validity of the prosocial behavior scale in terms of social value, which is one of the features of prosocial behavior. In the main study, 4th to 9th grade students (N=1,093) completed the questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that the prosocial behavior scale consisted of 3 factors: Prosocial behavior toward family, toward friends, and toward strangers. In addition, confirmatory factor analysis showed that these factors were integrated into 1 higher factor, a personality of prosociality. All the subscales had sufficient internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and corresponded to external criteria such as previously developed scales of prosocial behavior, empathy, self-consciousness, and school-life satisfaction. Results of a two-way ANOVA revealed that, on the whole, the girls scored higher than the boys, and that the elementary school students scored higher than the junior high school students. The availability of the scale and directions for future research on prosocial behavior were discussed.