Abstract: Intergenerational transmission refers to the intergenerational continuity of behaviors and characteristics between parents and children, including genetic transmission, socialization transmission, and the interactions of genes and environments. That is, there is a significant correlation between the characteristics of parents and the corresponding characteristics of children, and the parental characteristics have a predictive effect on the corresponding characteristics of children. Prosocial behaviors are considered voluntary actions performed to benefit others, such as helping, sharing, and comforting. Previous studies have well-established that prosocial behaviors can facilitate the positive development of children, including increased peer acceptance, reduced problem behaviors, better school performance, and more adaptive social functioning.
The development of prosocial behaviors would be influenced by various individual and environmental factors and their interactions, as well as parental genes and parental prosocial behaviors, which represent the intergenerational transmission effect. However, the transmission of prosocial behaviors across generations and its underlying mechanisms have not been fully investigated. Based on previous theoretical and empirical evidence, the intergenerational transmission model of prosocial behaviors was proposed. The developmental cascade model, proximal process theory, and relational developmental systems proposed that child development is a dynamic and cascading process that changes over time. The intergenerational transmission model of prosocial behavior development also adheres to this view, proposing that the intergenerational transmission or intergenerational impact of prosocial behaviors is a dynamic cascade process of various individual factors and environmental factors and their interaction over time. First, the expression of prosocial genes obtained by children from their parents is the basis of genetic transmission of prosocial behaviors. Second, parental prosocial characteristics and behaviors would directly affect their children's prosocial behaviors, as well as indirectly via complex underlying mechanisms, reflecting the cultural or social transmission. To be specific, parents with higher levels of prosocial behaviors are more likely to shape more positive family nurturing environments (e.g., family functioning, parenting, and parent-child relationships), which in turn is beneficial to the formation and development of children’s prosocial behaviors. In these processes, children’s cognitive and emotional characteristics (e.g., attachment representation, empathy, perspective-taking, and self-control) play a key role, as a mechanism linking parental or nurturing environmental factors and their prosocial behaviors. Third, different types of children’s environmental sensitivities, such as temperamental, physiological, and genetic sensitivities, may have a moderating role in the intergenerational transmission processes of prosocial behaviors. Individuals with higher environmental sensitivity are more strongly affected by external stimuli and then develop better and perform more prosocial behaviors under the condition of positive environments and correspondingly develop worse and fewer prosocial behaviors under the condition of negative environments. Fourth, several distal environmental factors, such as family socioeconomic status and social-cultural context, would also contribute to the intergenerational transmission of prosocial behaviors. Finally, consistent with the developmental cascade model, the proximal process model, and relational developmental systems theory, intergenerational transmission or intergenerational influence is a dynamic cascade process of interactions and influences of various factors over time, that is, a temporally dynamic process.
The intergenerational transmission model of prosocial behaviors provides a new theoretical framework for understanding intergenerational transmission mechanisms of prosocial behaviors and also has important implications for future empirical research. First, it is important to combine molecular genetics and epigenetics methods to systematically explore the interaction of genes and environments on the intergenerational transmission of prosocial behaviors in future studies. Additionally, combined with the longitudinal research design and cohort studies, the temporally dynamic processes and mechanisms of interaction between various environmental factors and individual factors affecting the intergenerational transmission of prosocial behaviors should be systematically investigated in the future. At the same time, exploring whether and how children's environmental sensitivity plays an important moderating role is worthwhile in systematically revealing the intergenerational transmission processes of prosocial behaviors.

Key words: prosocial behaviors, intergenerational transmission, temporally dynamic processes, theoretical model

摘要： 代际传递是指父母的特征、观念与行为等传递给子女的现象。代际传递有基因、文化或社会化以及基因与环境交互作用传递的路径。亲社会行为代际传递模型提出,亲社会行为的代际传递一方面表现为父母与子女共享的亲社会基因基础,另一方面则表现为父母亲社会特征会直接影响子女的亲社会行为,或通过影响父母教养方式等养育环境进而影响子女的认知与情感发展间接作用于子女的亲社会行为。同时,子女的环境敏感性特征在这一代际传递过程中起着重要的调节作用。亲社会行为代际传递模型为未来亲社会行为代际传递研究提供了理论框架和方法启示,对于揭示亲社会行为代际传递的时序动态过程机制具有重要意义。

关键词: 亲社会行为, 代际传递, 时序动态过程, 理论模型