Prevalence and Characteristics of Infants' Prosocial Helping Strategies Between 11 and 20 Months of Age

Although limited research suggests that infants can behave prosocially even before their first birthdays, the prevalence and characteristics of early prosocial behaviors remain unexplored. Indeed, very few studies of prosocial development have included 12-month-old infants or examined how prosociality changes across the second year, and none has assessed individual differences in prosocial strategy use. This study investigated prosocial helping behaviors in a racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of 220 11- to 20-month-olds living in the United States (45.5% female; 61% Black; 67.2% low socioeconomic status). At 12 months (n = 153), >80% of infants helped an experimenter retrieve out-of-reach items. Modest increases in helping were observed across the second year of life. Individual differences in specific helping strategies were also detected. Infants who helped more by handing an item to an experimenter on one task (rather than placing the item in a target location) also helped more by handing on another task; similar patterns were found with placing. Moreover, the type of strategy was associated with age and sex: older infants and male infants used more placing. The high rates of helping by 12 months of age and the use of individual helping strategies demonstrate that infants have robust prosocial abilities beyond those previously documented. These findings contribute critical information about the typical development of prosocial behaviors in the largest and most racially and socioeconomically diverse sample of infants to date.