This study investigates the trajectories of change in prosocial behavior and their
association with Schwartz values in a longitudinal sample of 290 children, starting
from grades 1-2 and followed over four annual waves. The mean age of children
at Time 1 (T1) was 86.77 months (SD = 7.68), with 49% girls. Prosocial behavior
was measured using a resource allocation task (Abramson et al., 2018), while
values were assessed through a picture-based values survey (Döring et al.,
2010).
Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA) revealed two distinct trajectories that best
described the data, as determined by the Bootstrap Likelihood Ratio Test (BLRT)
and the Lo-Mendell-Rubin Adjusted Likelihood Ratio Test (LMR). The two
trajectories identified were: a high-stable trajectory, comprising 48% of the
participants, and a low-increasing trajectory, comprising 52% of the participants.
The study found that values at T1 significantly predicted class membership.
Specifically, higher levels of self-transcendence values (i.e., benevolence,
universalism) and lower levels of self-enhancement values (i.e., power,
achievement) were associated higher likelihood of belonging to the high-stable
trajectory, versus the low-increasing trajectory. However, values related to
conservation (i.e., security, conformity, tradition) versus openness to change (i.e.,
self-direction, stimulation) did not predict class membership.
These findings suggest that some children are more likely to change in levels of
sharing behavior than others. Moreover, they suggest that children become more
likely to behave prosocially over time. We also found that values can predict the
level of prosocial behavior over time in middle childhood. We did not find
indication that they predict changes in prosocial behavior. This research
contributes to our understanding of the role of values in the development of
prosocial behavior and highlights the importance of fostering self-transcendence

values in early childhood to promote stable prosocial behavior trajectories.