Development of prosocial behaviour in children after the improvement of family competences
Abstract
Purpose
This research assesses the predictive capacity of key factors in the development of family competences: parent-children relationship, family involvement, family resilience and positive parenting. It also aims to establish which are the most discriminating factors between the groups showing the most and the least prosocial behaviours.
Design/methodology/approach
The study involves a longitudinal study of one child from 181 families; 155 families in the experimental group and 26 in the control group. Both boys and girls are included and their ages range from 8 to 14 years. The instruments employed are all validated for use with a Spanish population and include Karol Kumpfer’s questionnaires on family competence and the BASC questionnaire.
Findings
All of the factors analysed, with the exception of family involvement, proved to be predictive for prosocial behaviour, and the most discriminating among these were: parent-children relationship, family resilience and positive parenting.
Originality/value
One key issue in family prevention programmes is the development of prosocial behaviour. In this sense, the research developed here aims at highlighting protective factors as key to developing a prosocial behaviour.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This work is one of the results of the following Spanish Government Research Projects: EDU2010-20336: “Long-term evaluation of a programme for prevention of behavioural problems and drug consumption: The Family Competence Programme” and EDU2013-42412-R “Cultural adaptation of the SFP 12-16. Proposal of evidence-based family education for families at risk”.
This research had the support of the Secretary of Social Affairs, Promotion and Immigration of the Government of the Balearic Islands, for the implementation of social services in the Balearic Islands from 2008 to 2011; the Foundation Proyecto Hombre, for the implementation in a series of associations across Spain; the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness EDU2010-20336 and EDU2013-42412-R (sub-programme EDUC), for the evaluation of the maintenance and dissemination of the long-term results. It also had the support of the Secretary of Education and Culture of the Government of the Balearic Islands (Resolución del Conseller d’Educació, Cultura i Universitats de 16 de Diciembre de 2011. BOIB, núm. 3, 07-01-2012, co-financed with FEDER funds).
Citation
Orte, C., Ballester, L., March, M.X., Oliver, J.L., Pascual, B. and Gomila, M.A. (2015), "Development of prosocial behaviour in children after the improvement of family competences", Journal of Children's Services, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 161-172. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCS-02-2014-0013
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited