The development of altruism in children and its parental influences

Abstract

Altruistic behaviour is a type of prosocial behaviour which is costly to the actor but beneficial to the recipient. It can, in children, be influenced by numerous factors, including parental political orientation, parental religiousness, and the child's age and gender. This cross-sectional research investigates these parental influences and individual factors on altruistic behaviour of children in Northern Norway. Using the economic game called ‘the allocation game’, a variant of the dictator game, children from three schools within Tromsø Municipality were asked to allocate cookies among their classmates and themselves. Parents of the participating children received a questionnaire with questions about their political orientation, religiousness and other demographic factors. Results showed that children from more right-wing families portrayed more altruistic behaviour than children from left-wing families, contrary to previous research. Additionally, children from more religious families showed a tendency to portray more altruistic behaviour. Lastly, girls tended to show more altruistic behaviour than boys, and younger children tended to show more altruistic behaviour than older children. This suggests that external factors, such as parental political orientation and religiousness, as well as individual factors like age and gender, can influence the development of altruism in children. This research highlights the importance of considering both external, i.e. parental influences and individual factors when researching the development of prosocial behaviour in children and opens up for further research in this field.