Frontiers in Psychology (Feb 2022)
To Help or Not to Help? Prosocial Behavior, Its Association With Well-Being, and Predictors of Prosocial Behavior During the Coronavirus Disease Pandemic
- Elisa Haller,
- Jelena Lubenko,
- Giovambattista Presti,
- Valeria Squatrito,
- Marios Constantinou,
- Christiana Nicolaou,
- Savvas Papacostas,
- Gökçen Aydın,
- Yuen Yu Chong,
- Wai Tong Chien,
- Ho Yu Cheng,
- Francisco J. Ruiz,
- María B. García-Martín,
- Diana P. Obando-Posada,
- Miguel A. Segura-Vargas,
- Vasilis S. Vasiliou,
- Louise McHugh,
- Stefan Höfer,
- Adriana Baban,
- David Dias Neto,
- Ana Nunes da Silva,
- Jean-Louis Monestès,
- Javier Alvarez-Galvez,
- Marisa Paez-Blarrina,
- Francisco Montesinos,
- Sonsoles Valdivia-Salas,
- Dorottya Ori,
- Dorottya Ori,
- Bartosz Kleszcz,
- Raimo Lappalainen,
- Iva Ivanović,
- David Gosar,
- Frederick Dionne,
- Rhonda M. Merwin,
- Maria Karekla,
- Angelos P. Kassianos,
- Andrew T. Gloster
Affiliations
- Elisa Haller
- Clinical Psychology and Intervention Science, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- Jelena Lubenko
- Department of Health Psychology and Pedagogy, Riga Stradiņš University, Riga, Latvia
- Giovambattista Presti
- Kore University Behavioral Lab, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Kore University of Enna, Enna, Italy
- Valeria Squatrito
- Kore University Behavioral Lab, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, Kore University of Enna, Enna, Italy
- Marios Constantinou
- Department of Social Sciences, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus
- Christiana Nicolaou
- Department of Nursing, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus
- Savvas Papacostas
- Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, Nicosia, Cyprus
- Gökçen Aydın
- Department of Psychological Counseling and Guidance, Faculty of Education, Hasan Kalyoncu University, Gaziantep, Turkey
- Yuen Yu Chong
- The Nethersole School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Wai Tong Chien
- The Nethersole School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Ho Yu Cheng
- The Nethersole School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
- Francisco J. Ruiz
- Department of Psychology, Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, Bogotá, Colombia
- María B. García-Martín
- 0Faculty of Psychology, Universidad de La Sabana, Chía, Colombia
- Diana P. Obando-Posada
- 0Faculty of Psychology, Universidad de La Sabana, Chía, Colombia
- Miguel A. Segura-Vargas
- Department of Psychology, Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz, Bogotá, Colombia
- Vasilis S. Vasiliou
- 1Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
- Louise McHugh
- 2School of Psychology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
- Stefan Höfer
- 3Department of Medical Psychology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria
- Adriana Baban
- 4Department of Psychology, Babes-Bolyai University (UBB), Cluj-Napoca, Romania
- David Dias Neto
- 5ISPA—Instituto Universitário, APPsyCI—Applied Psychology Research Center Capabilities and Inclusion, Lisbon, Portugal
- Ana Nunes da Silva
- 6Faculdade de Psicologia, Universidade de Lisboa, Alameda da Universidade, Lisbon, Portugal
- Jean-Louis Monestès
- 7LIP/PC2S Lab, Université Grenoble Alpes, Grenoble, France
- Javier Alvarez-Galvez
- 8Department of Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Public Health, University of Cadiz, Cadiz, Spain
- Marisa Paez-Blarrina
- 9Instituto ACT, Madrid, Spain
- Francisco Montesinos
- 0Department of Psychology, European University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
- Sonsoles Valdivia-Salas
- 1Department of Psychology and Sociology, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
- Dorottya Ori
- 2Department of Mental Health, Heim Pal National Pediatric Institute, Budapest, Hungary
- Dorottya Ori
- 3Institute of Behavioural Sciences, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
- Bartosz Kleszcz
- 4Bartosz Kleszcz Psychotherapy and Training, Sosnowiec, Poland
- Raimo Lappalainen
- 5Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland
- Iva Ivanović
- 6Department of Child Psychiatry, Institute for Children’s Diseases, Clinical Centre of Montenegro, Podgorica, Montenegro
- David Gosar
- 7Department of Child, Adolescent and Developmental Neurology, University Children’s Hospital, University Medical Center, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Frederick Dionne
- 8Département de Psychologie, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada
- Rhonda M. Merwin
- 9Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Duke University, Durham, CA, United States
- Maria Karekla
- 0Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
- Angelos P. Kassianos
- 0Department of Psychology, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus
- Andrew T. Gloster
- Clinical Psychology and Intervention Science, Department of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.775032
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 12
Abstract
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic fundamentally disrupted humans’ social life and behavior. Public health measures may have inadvertently impacted how people care for each other. This study investigated prosocial behavior, its association well-being, and predictors of prosocial behavior during the first COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and sought to understand whether region-specific differences exist. Participants (N = 9,496) from eight regions clustering multiple countries around the world responded to a cross-sectional online-survey investigating the psychological consequences of the first upsurge of lockdowns in spring 2020. Prosocial behavior was reported to occur frequently. Multiple regression analyses showed that prosocial behavior was associated with better well-being consistently across regions. With regard to predictors of prosocial behavior, high levels of perceived social support were most strongly associated with prosocial behavior, followed by high levels of perceived stress, positive affect and psychological flexibility. Sociodemographic and psychosocial predictors of prosocial behavior were similar across regions.
Keywords
