A Developmental Cascade Model of Prosocial Behavior, Academic Competence, and Peer Exclusion Across Preadolescence (vol 67, pg 269, 2021)

The current research used longitudinal data from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (N = 1,103) to examine the developmental autoregressive cascades of prosocial behavior, academic competence, and peer exclusion in Grades 3-6. The cascade paths revealed that Grade 3 prosocial behavior was negatively associated with Grade 4 peer exclusion and positively associated with Grade 4 academic competence; then, Grade 4 peer exclusion in turn negatively influenced Grade 5 prosocial behavior; Grade 4 academic competence in turn positively influenced Grade 5 prosocial behavior; finally, Grade 5 prosocial behavior was negatively associated with Grade 6 peer exclusion and positively associated with Grade 6 academic competence. Implications for developmental cascade models, progressions, and preventive interventions were discussed.