TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2021//
TI  - Longitudinal associations between prosociality and depressive symptoms in Chinese children: the mediating role of peer preference
JO  - Journal of youth and adolescence
A1  - Jin, Guomin
A1  - Fu, Rui
A1  - Li, Dan
A1  - Chen, Xinyin
A1  - Liu, Junsheng
SP  - ePub
EP  - ePub
VL  - ePub
IS  - ePub
N2  - Despite empirical findings that prosociality is related to decreased depressive symptoms in children, little is known about the directionality of the relations and the mechanisms that may explain the relations. To address these gaps, this study examined bi-directional associations between prosociality and depressive symptoms and the mediating effects of peer preference on the associations in Chinese children. Multi-wave longitudinal data were collected each year from Grades 3 to 6 in a sample of children in China (initial N = 1012; 51.6% girls; initial M(age) = 8.68 years). The results showed that prosociality and depression negatively contributed to each other over time. Prosociality also predicted increased peer preference, which in turn contributed to fewer depressive symptoms, suggesting that peer preference was a mediator of the contributions of prosociality to depressive symptoms. These findings indicate the temporal ordering of prosociality and depressive symptoms and the processes in the development of depressive symptoms in Chinese children.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 0047-2891
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01501-4
ID  - ref1
ER  -