Abstract / Summary
Child maltreatment is a well-established risk factor for mental health problems and maladaptive developmental outcomes. However, beyond its well-documented links to psychopathology, child maltreatment can also disrupt social functioning and erode social support, further increasing vulnerability to adverse outcomes across development. Prosocial behavior—voluntary actions intended to benefit others—is a core component of social functioning and supports the formation and maintenance of positive relationships. Although child maltreatment has been consistently linked to lower levels of prosocial behavior in children and adolescents, findings regarding the unique contributions of specific maltreatment dimensions (i.e., abuse, neglect and emotional maltreatment) remain mixed. The present preregistered study therefore aimed to examine the unique contributions of abuse, neglect and emotional maltreatment to the development of prosocial behavior across childhood and adolescence. To this end, we applied structural equation modeling (SEM) to fine-grained and multisource dimensional assessments of maltreatment to examine their unique associations with self- and caregiver-reported prosocial behavior in a large sample (N = 812) of German children and adolescents aged 3 to 16 years. Results indicate that experiences of abuse - but not neglect or emotional maltreatment – were uniquely associated with lower levels of both self- and caregiver-reported prosocial behavior. For caregiver-reported prosocial behavior, these associations further varied by gender and age group: the negative association of abuse was more pronounced in boys, and neglect was additionally associated with lower prosocial behavior among adolescents. These findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between dimensions of child maltreatment, as abuse appears to play a particularly salient role in undermining prosocial development. Accounting for developmental stage and gender may further refine our understanding of risk pathways in social functioning to ultimately inform more tailored prevention and intervention strategies.