Prosocial Behavior and Peer Acceptance: A Longitudinal Social Network Analysis

Being accepted by peers is important at all ages, but particularly during development. Prosocial behavior has consistently been linked to peer acceptance, with studies showing that prosocial behavior at one time point predicts increases in acceptance by peers at later time points. However, comparatively less research has examined this association while simultaneously accounting for alternative developmental pathways. In fact, recent evidence suggests that, first, peer acceptance may promote the later development of prosocial behavior and, second, prosociality is contagious, potentially leading youths to be influenced by their peers’ prosocial behavior. Using a longitudinal social network analysis, the present study examines bidirectional links between peer acceptance and prosocial behavior, as well as peer influence effects on prosocial behavior. Four waves of data were collected at six-month intervals from fourth-grade Italian pre-adolescents (N = 185, Mage at Time 1 = 9.35, SD = 0.31), including peer nominations of liking and teacher-rated prosocial behavior. We did not find evidence that prosocial youth were more likely to be accepted; however, being accepted increased the tendency toward higher levels of prosocial behavior. Furthermore, youth adjusted their prosocial behavior to align with the prosocial levels of the peers they liked, indicating a significant influence effect. These findings suggest that prosocial development is a socially embedded process, shaped by both one's relational positioning and by influence from liked peers.