Early Childhood Altruism: How Parents See Prosocial Behavior in their Young Children

Abstract

Young children in their everyday interaction with peers or adults display spontaneously their interest and love in a great variety of ways and actions. Some of these altruistic behaviors have already been described, although there is much more that parents see in their children's altruistic behavior. In addition altruistic behavior includes emotions as well as actions (Eisenberg, 1986, p. 2). In this research we have aimed: to investigate as far as possible the great variety of ways that children 0‐6 years of age use in order to express their altruism. In particular we try to depict what feelings and actions make up the usual altruistic behavior in this period of development.

Key words:

• Altruism
• early childhood
• prosocial behavior
• parents