The Effect of Serving as a Resident Assistant on Undergraduates’ Prosocial Behaviors

Abstract

The authors examined whether serving as a resident assistant has an effect on undergraduates’ prosocial behaviors (social change behaviors, social perspective taking, and social generativity). The authors used propensity score matching techniques to develop a “treatment group” of resident assistants and a matched “control group” of students who were not resident assistants using covariates. Resident assistants had significantly higher social change behaviors, social perspective taking, and social generativity compared to the matched peer group.