Construction of the Theoretical Model of Intergenerational Transmission of Prosocial Behaviors and Its Significance

Liu Qianwen; Wang Zhenhong

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20250213

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Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2025, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (2) : 406-413. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20250213

Developmental & Educational Psychology

Construction of the Theoretical Model of Intergenerational Transmission of Prosocial Behaviors and Its Significance

Liu Qianwen, Wang Zhenhong

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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.

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prosocial behaviors / intergenerational transmission / temporally dynamic processes / theoretical model

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Liu Qianwen, Wang Zhenhong. Construction of the Theoretical Model of Intergenerational Transmission of Prosocial Behaviors and Its Significance[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2025, 48(2): 406-413 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20250213

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