Kindness: a perspective from developmental psychology

Self-focused autonomy, other-focused pro-sociality, and well-being: a cross-national cluster analysis

Through cluster analysis, this study seeks to identify various clusters that differ in the level of self-focused and other-focused caring (e.g., autonomy and pro-sociality) and to contrast the happiness and life satisfaction among them. This approach is based on the notion that unifying autonomy and pro-sociality is more advantageous than separating them for well-being, which follows the theories and empirical studies. The World Value Survey dataset (N = 76897; Mage = 43.02, SD = 16.37) is used, which uses random probability representative adult samples from 51 countries or territories. Results suggest that autonomy and pro-sociality both have distinct implications for happiness and life satisfaction. Four distinct clusters are identified: autonomous (high self-focused and low other-focused), prosocial (low self-focused and high other-focused), flourished (high self-focused and high other-focused), and indifferent (low self-focused and low other-focused). In terms of indicators of well-being, the flourished group has the highest levels of happiness and life satisfaction, followed by the autonomous group, the prosocial group, and the indifferent group. It appears that individuals who exhibit both high self-focused and high other-focused caring attain the greatest well-being. The implications, limitations, and potential directions for future research are discussed.

Fostering Prosociality in Refugee Children: An Intervention With Rohingya Children

Prosocial behavior is a distinguishing characteristic of human nature. Although prosocial behaviors emerge early in development, contextual factors play an important role in how these behaviors are manifested over development. A large body of research focuses on the trajectory of prosocial development across diverse cultures and investigating contexts that foster it. Against this backdrop of developmental research endeavoring to understand and enhance the cooperative side of humanity, is the catastrophic impact of profoundly negative forces on social-emotional development for children forced to flee from violent conflict. Close to half a million Rohingya children, whose families were forced to flee genocide in Myanmar, now live in the largest refugee camp in the world. To examine the resilience of human prosociality in the face of extreme adversity, we documented initial levels of prosociality in Rohingya refugee children living in a mega-camp (Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh) and the extent to which those levels were improved following a multifaceted intervention designed to foster prosociality. The research was a partnership between Rohingya community members with lived experience, humanitarian practitioners, and developmental researchers. A sample of 152 Rohingya children (5-12 years) participated in pre- and postintervention assessments of prosocial behaviors and related cognitive-affective processes. The 10-day collaboration-based intervention was implemented between November 2021 and January 2022 by Rohingya researchers. Birthplace was used as a proxy measure of trauma level. Children born in Myanmar (N = 88) directly experienced relatively higher levels of trauma (genocide, forced migration) than children who were born in the camp after their families fled from Myanmar (N = 64). Children were individually tested pre- and postintervention with a task battery, including a helping (Origami) and two sharing tasks (Dictator Game [DG], Forced Choice sharing) measuring prosocial behavior. Assessments of related cognitive-affective processes included measures of empathic responding and emotion perspective-taking in story tasks (Imagine, Judgment) and executive function (EF) skills (Younger: Hearts & Flowers; Older: Dimensional Change Card Sorting). Small group intervention sessions conducted over 10 days targeted these prosocial behaviors and cognitive-affective processes and were based on collaborative activities, emotion perspective taking and EF skills training with the same partner throughout the intervention phase. We used latent change modeling to examine initial levels (preintervention) and intervention-related changes in these measures from pre- to postintervention. Prosocial responding was found across all measures (preintervention) and improvements (pre- to postintervention change) were apparent across most measures. Age and birthplace variables were significant predictors of initial levels and intervention-related change. Initial levels: Regarding age, older children (9-12 years) showed higher levels than younger children (5-8 years) of sharing in the Forced Choice task but lower levels in the DG. Older children also showed higher levels of empathic responding when asked to report how they would feel and respond to another person's misfortune in the Imagine task. Regarding birthplace, prior to the intervention camp-born children showed higher levels than Myanmar-born children of helping in the Origami task and reported more behavioral responses indicating how they would respond to misfortune in the Imagine task. In contrast, Myanmar-born children had higher levels of sharing in the DG and consistently chose equality over inequality in the Forced Choice sharing task, even when their partner would receive more, indicating a pattern of generosity in these children. Myanmar-born children had lower levels than camp-born children on EF measures. Intervention-related change: Regarding age, older but not younger children were more likely to increase choices for equality over inequality on the Forced Choice sharing task following the intervention. Regarding birthplace and helping, camp-born children increased behaviors that helped their partner make origami shapes themselves ("how-to" helping), whereas Myanmar-born children increased behavior that took over folding for their partner ("do-for" helping). For sharing tasks, Myanmar-born but not camp-born children increased sharing in the DG and showed an increased pattern of generosity in Forced Choice sharing task. In the Imagine story task, children born in Myanmar were more likely than those born in camp to increase empathic responding (i.e., imagining how they would feel). Children born in Myanmar showed less improvement on EF measures than children born in the camp. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that in a context of extreme adversity, Rohingya children exhibited prosociality and benefitted from a multifaceted intervention. Our research adds credence to the view that human prosociality is a fundamental characteristic of humanity that not only survives but can be enhanced in even the most adverse of childhood environments. Our multifaceted intervention, which was implemented within a collaborative social context and targeted prosocial behaviors and related cognitive-affective processes, was designed to be easily implemented within existing psychosocial support programs in refugee contexts. As the numbers of children affected by violent conflict and forced migration rise alarmingly worldwide, there is a critical need to expand research partnerships that aim to improve developmental outcomes for these millions of children.

Observing prosociality and talent: the emotional characteristics and behavioral outcomes of elevation and admiration in 6.5- to 8.5-year-old children

Helping and seeing others being helped elicits positive emotions in young children but little is known about the nature of these emotions, especially in middle childhood. Here we examined the specific emotional characteristics and behavioral outcomes of two closely related other-praising moral emotions: elevation and admiration. We exposed 182 6.5- to 8.5-year-old children living in New Zealand, to an elevation- and admiration-inducing video clip. Afterwards children's emotion experiences and prosocial behaviour was measured. Findings revealed higher levels of happiness, care, and warmth after seeing prosociality in others (elevation condition) and higher levels of upliftment after seeing talent in others (admiration condition). We found no differences in prosocial behavior between the elevation and admiration conditions. This is the first study to assess elevation in childhood and offers a novel paradigm to investigate the role of moral emotions as potential motivators underlying helping.

Nurturing child social-emotional development: evaluation of a pre-post and 2-month follow-up uncontrolled pilot training for caregivers and educators

BACKGROUND

Social-emotional capacities contribute to children's mental health by helping them navigate their own and others' emotional states and forge healthy relationships. Caregivers and educators are critical socialization agents in early and middle childhood, but gaps remain in the systematic integration of social-emotional research into caregiver and educator trainings. The aim of this pilot study was to test the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a social-emotional training designed to promote caregivers' and educators' capacities to support social-emotional development in children ages 3-8 years.

METHODS

Fifty adults (n = 24 caregivers of children ages 3-8 years, n = 26 educators working with children ages 3-8 years) participated in a virtual training over 3 weeks. Participants completed pre-training, post-training, and 2-month follow-up questionnaires evaluating their knowledge of social-emotional concepts, use of training strategies, mental health, and satisfaction with the training. Caregivers also reported children's social-emotional capacities and mental health.

RESULTS

On average, caregivers and educators completed 83% of the virtual training sessions and reported high satisfaction with the training. Further, preliminary evidence indicated that caregivers' and educators' knowledge of social-emotional concepts increased pre- to post-training and was maintained at the 2-month follow-up. Increases in caregivers' and educators' knowledge and greater use of training strategies were associated with improvements in children's social-emotional capacities and caregivers' and educators' own mental health.

CONCLUSIONS

These pilot results support the feasibility of infusing evidence-based social-emotional content into caregiver and educator training initiatives aimed at nurturing child social-emotional development and mental health. The results inform future evaluation of the short- and long-term benefits of this training with a full-scale randomized controlled trial design.

Evaluating a Social-Emotional Training Program for Refugee Families and Service Providers: Pilot Study

BACKGROUND

Refugee children are often exposed to adversities that present a threat to their healthy development. Promoting refugee children's social-emotional capacities may be an opportune, strengths-based avenue to nurture their resilience, coping strategies, and mental health outcomes amid these risks. Furthermore, supporting caregivers' and service providers' capacities to provide strengths-based care may result in more sustainable, caring environments for refugee children. However, culturally adapted initiatives that aim to promote social-emotional capacities and mental health in refugee children, caregivers, and service providers are limited.

OBJECTIVE

In this pilot study, we aimed to assess the feasibility and efficacy of a brief, 3-week social-emotional training program for refugee caregivers of children aged between 2 and 12 years and service providers who support refugees. This study had 3 central objectives. First, we examined whether refugee caregivers' and service providers' knowledge of core social-emotional concepts increased from pre- to posttraining, whether these increases were maintained 2 months later, and whether caregivers and service providers reported a high use of training-based strategies after the training. Second, we assessed if refugee caregivers reported any improvements in their children's social-emotional capacities and mental health from pre- to posttraining and 2 months later. Finally, we evaluated whether caregivers and service providers experienced any improvements in their own mental health symptoms from pre- to posttraining and 2 months later.

METHODS

A total of 50 Middle Eastern refugee caregivers of children (n=26) aged between 2 and 12 years and service providers (n=24) were recruited using convenience sampling and participated in a 3-week training program. Training sessions were delivered via a web-based learning management system and involved a combination of asynchronous (video-based) and synchronous (web-based live group) sessions. The training was evaluated using an uncontrolled pre-, post-, and 2-month follow-up design. Caregivers and service providers reported their understanding of social-emotional concepts and mental health at pre-, post-, and 2 months after training and reported their use of training strategies after training. Caregivers reported their children's social-emotional capacities and mental health through a presurvey, a series of postsurveys (after each module session and 1 week after the training), and a 2-month follow-up survey. The participants also reported their demographic information.

RESULTS

Caregivers' and service providers' knowledge of social-emotional concepts increased significantly from pre- to posttraining, and the service providers' knowledge increase was sustained at the 2-month follow-up. Both caregivers and service providers reported high levels of strategy use. Furthermore, 2 markers of children's social-emotional development (ie, emotion regulation and sadness over wrongdoing) improved after training.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings highlight the potential of strengths-based, culturally adapted social-emotional initiatives to support refugee caregivers' and service providers' abilities to provide high-quality social-emotional care to refugee children.

Autonomic Arousal, Ethical Guilt, and Externalizing Behavior in Childhood: A Clinical Extension and Replication

Lower autonomic arousal is associated with higher externalizing behavior in childhood but the mechanisms explaining this link are still debated. One possibility is that lower autonomic arousal makes it difficult for children to anticipate or express social emotions, such as ethical guilt rooted in concern for others, thereby increasing their likelihood of externalizing behavior. However, evidence for this social-emotional hypothesis has been limited to community samples. The present study included ethnically diverse samples of 150 typically developing children (M_age = 8.01 years; 50% girls) and 62 children referred for clinically elevated externalizing behavior (M_age = 9.16 years; 16% girls; N = 212). Caregivers reported children's externalizing behavior. Children's respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was measured as an indicator of parasympathetic activity in response to hypothetical vignettes depicting externalizing behavior. Children's ethical guilt was coded from semi-structured interviews following each vignette. Greater RSA increases (indicating a low-arousal, rest-and-digest response) were associated with lower ethical guilt. Lower ethical guilt was associated with higher externalizing behavior. A significant indirect effect showed that RSA increases were associated with higher externalizing behavior through relative lapses in ethical guilt. Results were consistent across and within the community and clinical samples. Theoretical and practical implications for clinically elevated externalizing behavior are discussed.

Attentional Control Moderates the Relation between Sympathy and Ethical Guilt

In response to ethical transgressions, some children respond with ethical guilt (e.g., remorse), while others do not. The affective and cognitive precursors of ethical guilt have been widely studied on their own, however, few studies have looked at the interaction of affective (e.g., sympathy) and cognitive (e.g., attention) precursors on ethical guilt. This study examined the effects of children's sympathy, attentional control, and their interaction on 4 and 6-year-old children's ethical guilt. A sample of 118 children (50% girls, 4-year-olds: M_age = 4.58, SD = .24, n = 57; 6-year-old: M_age = 6.52, SD = .33, n = 61) completed an attentional control task and provided self-reports of dispositional sympathy and ethical guilt in response to hypothetical ethical violations. Sympathy and attentional control were not directly associated with ethical guilt. Attentional control, however, moderated the relation between sympathy and ethical guilt, such that sympathy was more strongly related to ethical guilt at increasing levels of attentional control. This interaction did not differ between 4- and 6-year-olds or boys and girls. These findings illustrate an interaction between emotion and cognitive processes and suggest that promoting children's ethical development may require a focus on both attentional control and sympathy.

Untying the Text: Organizational Prosociality and Kindness

The scholarly field of organizational prosociality is experiencing a renewed interest, yet despite its long track record, researchers still disagree on the definitions of primary concepts. Two umbrella terms, prosocial behaviors and kindness, are particularly baffling, as they are defined similarly, at times used synonymously, yet the differences between them are unclear. Consequently, the field suffers from conceptual ambiguity, which hampers its development. In this brief critical paper, we provide a review of the definitions of prosocial behavior and kindness, in an attempt to semantically untie the text, unpack the context, and discuss the subtext that underlies these concepts. Our analysis suggests that the two concepts overlap in their emphasis on dispositions and actions that aim to promote the welfare of others. However, acts of kindness and prosocial behaviors differ in actors, their target recipients and scale. Acts of kindness are performed by an individual and directed at a person or a small group, while prosocial behaviors can be performed by a person or an organization, and can be directed at a person or a group, but may also be directed at a much larger entity: an organization, community, nation, or society at large.

Parent–child conversations about refugee newcomers are associated with children’s refugee-specific prosociality

We examined Canadian host-society children’s prosociality (i.e., emotions and behaviors that reflect care for the welfare of others) toward refugee newcomer peers and the role of parental socialization (i.e., frequency of parent-child conversations about refugee newcomers) in children’s refugee-specific prosociality. The sample included 168 children (ages 6, 9, and 12 years; 51% girls; 58% European ethnicity) and their primary caregivers. We interviewed children to assess their ethical guilt-related emotions (based on emotions and reasoning) in response to a hypothetical vignette depicting prosocial omission involving a refugee newcomer peer or a non-refugee peer (between-subjects manipulation). A donation task was used to assess prosocial behavior wherein children were given the opportunity to donate chocolate coins to a refugee newcomer peer. Parents reported on how often they typically engage in conversations with their children about refugees and about inclusion. Children experienced similar intensities of ethical guilt-related emotions in the refugee compared with the nonrefugee condition, and donations to refugees increased across age groups. Furthermore, children whose parents engaged them in more frequent conversations about refugees expressed stronger ethical guilt-related emotions toward refugee peers (but not toward host-society peers), and donated more to a refugee peer. No significant associations between conversations about inclusion more broadly and refugee-specific prosociality were found. Encouraging parents to have conversations with their children that focus on the experiences of refugees may be important for fostering kindness between refugees and host-society children. Ultimately, these findings may contribute to initiatives that focus on promoting the inclusion of refugee newcomers in their postmigratory societies.

How Is Virtuous Personality Trait Related to Online Deviant Behavior among Adolescent College Students in the Internet Environment? A Moderated Moderated-Mediation Analysis

Online deviant behavior is a series of maladaptive behaviors that may have adverse effects on the physical and mental health of others and adolescents in the Internet environment. Previous studies have paid more attention to the risk factors of adolescent online deviant behavior. However, its protective factors and psychological mechanisms remain unclear. Thus, this study explored the protective effect of virtuous personality trait on adolescents' online deviant behavior and its psychological mechanism. A total of 851 Chinese college students anonymously completed a series of questionnaires about virtuous personality trait, moral disengagement, perspective taking, and online deviant behavior. The findings showed the following: (1) Virtuous personality trait was negatively correlated with online deviant behavior. (2) Moral disengagement mediated the relationship between virtuous personality trait and online deviant behavior. (3) Perspective taking moderated the first half stage of the mediation model in which college students' virtuous personality trait influences online deviant behavior via moral disengagement. (4) A moderated moderated-mediation analysis found that gender moderated the moderating effect of perspective taking on the relationship between virtuous personality trait and moral disengagement. This study is helpful to demonstrate the protective effect and psychological mechanism of virtuous personality trait on online deviant behavior. Some theoretical and practical significance and limitations were also analyzed and discussed.

A Stage 1 Pilot Cohort Exploring the Use of EMDR Therapy as a Videoconference Psychotherapy During COVID-19 With Frontline Mental Health Workers: A Proof of Concept Study Utilising a Virtual Blind 2 Therapist Protocol

Objective

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on the delivery of psychological treatment. Due to social distancing requirements, the provision moved to videoconferencing psychotherapy (VCP). There is a paucity of empirical data supporting the efficacy of EMDR therapy as a VCP. This stage 1 pilot study tested an EMDR therapy scripted protocol, such as Virtual Blind 2 Therapist (VB2Tr), on frontline mental health workers as a VCP regarding fitness for purpose, distinctiveness, relevance, and efficiency.

Methods

A total of 24 participants were recruited for the study. The design included a one-session treatment intervention with pre, post, 1-month, and 6-month follow-up (FU) measurements. This treatment session used a “Blind 2 Therapist” EMDR therapy scripted protocol as videoconference psychotherapy that involves non-disclosure of traumatic memory. The research explored the treatment effect on the core characteristics of trauma memory, including subjective disturbance, belief systems, memory intensity (MI), vividness, and levels of emotionality. Additionally, the research explored participants’ experiences of adverse and benevolent childhood experiences (ACEs/BCEs) during their childhood.

Results

Regarding the four tests, namely, fitness for purpose, distinctiveness, relevance, and efficiency, results are favourably suggesting potential clinical benefits of using EMDR as videoconference psychotherapy. Although this is a proof-of-concept study showing positive results, no clinical population or control group was used. The purpose of the study is to explore the potential for scalability toward a larger clinical trial. The treatment intervention was achieved irrespective of either ACEs/BCEs during childhood.

Conclusion

The research tentatively supports the case for EMDR therapy as a credible treatment when used as video conference psychotherapy and in using the Blind 2 Therapist protocol. However, more research is needed to scale toward a clinical trial.

Clinical Trial Registration

Clinical Trial Registration:https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN12099530, identifier ISRCTN12099530.

Prosocial cascades: Understanding and nurturing the potential for positive developmental trajectories

Understanding the developmental cycles and mechanisms that nurture prosocial behavior can support our potential to build a kinder and more peaceful society. The current chapter explores positive developmental cascades, with a focus on the chain reactions that explain how prosocial behaviors manifest and evolve throughout childhood and adolescence. Specifically, we review the main issues, theories, and findings related to the study of children's prosocial trajectories. We focus on various socialization environments that span typical and adverse (e.g., trauma, poverty, maltreatment, exposure to violence) contexts. Furthermore, we highlight the evidence behind efforts and initiatives that aim to nurture prosociality in children and families. We conclude with future directions for how research on positive cascades can inform research-practice alliances work that aims to break harmful cycles and promote prosocial mechanisms of change.

Dispositional and situational moral emotions, bullying and prosocial behavior in adolescence

Studies that distinguish the role of dispositional and situational moral emotions in bullying situations remain limited in the international literature. This work, therefore, aims to analyze the role of dispositional and situational moral emotions in bullying and prosocial behavior in adolescents. Two studies were conducted: a cross-sectional study including 644 adolescents aged 14–18 years (M = 15.6, DT = 1.4) and a repeated measures design including 235 adolescents aged 10–15 years (M = 12.5, DT = 0.9). The objectives of Study 1 were 1) to validate two scales for the situational moral emotions elicited in bullying situations (elevation and moral disgust) and 2) to examine the relationships between dispositional and situational moral emotions and prosocial behavior toward victims and bullying behavior. The results show adequate psychometric properties for both elevation and moral disgust scales. Furthermore, both situational moral emotions are negatively related to bullying behavior, whereas dispositional emotions such as compassion and gratitude have a positive effect on prosocial behavior. Study 2 assessed the prospective relationship between dispositional gratitude and prosocial behavior toward victims and bullying behavior. The results of this study indicate that dispositional gratitude has a positive prospective effect on prosocial behavior towards victims and a negative effect on bullying behavior. In conclusion, the relevance of moral emotions for the prevention of bullying behavior is highlighted and the role that self-transcendent dispositional emotions have on prosocial behavior from the perspective of developmental psychology.

Toward complementarity: Specificity and commonality in social-emotional development: Introduction to the special section

What are the roles of specificity and commonality in social-emotional development? We begin by highlighting the conceptual context for this timely and timeless question and explain how responses to it can inform novel lines of theoretical and empirical inquiry, as well as sociocultural generalizability. Next, we describe how the selection of papers included in this special section contributes to our understanding of specificity and commonality in social-emotional development. We then explain how applying the complementarity principle to social-emotional development can inform a future research agenda in this domain. Lastly, we discuss how specificity and commonality fundamentally impact the way we conceptualize and implement interventions aimed at nurturing social-emotional development in every child.

The Development of Respect in Children and Adolescents

Respect is an integral part of everyday life. It is a virtue central to the aim of living an ethically good life. Despite its importance, little is known about its emergence, development, correlates, and consequences. In this monograph, we aim to fill this gap by presenting empirical work on children's and adolescents' thinking and feelings about respect. Specifically, we examined the development of respect in ethnically diverse samples of children between the ages of 5 and 15 years (N = 476). Using a narrative and semi-structured interview, as well as self-, caregiver- and teacher-reports, and peer-nominations, we collected information on children's respect conceptions and reasoning, as well as on the social-emotional correlates and prosocial and aggressive behavioral outcomes of respect. We begin with a review of theoretical accounts on respect. This includes a selective overview of the history of respect in philosophy and psychology in Chapter I. Here, we discuss early writings and conceptualizations of respect across the seminal works of Kant and others. We then provide an account of the various ways in which respect is conceptualized across the psychological literature. In Chapter II, we review extant developmental theory and research on respect and its development, correlates, and behavioral consequences. In this chapter, as part of our developmental framework, we discuss how respect is related and distinct from other emotions such as sympathy and admiration. Next, we describe our methodology (Chapter III). This includes a summary of our research aims, samples, and measures used for exploring this novel area of research. Our primary goals were to examine how children and adolescents conceptualize respect, how their conceptualizations differ by age, whether and to what degree children feel respect toward others' "good" behavior (i.e., respect evaluations for behavior rooted in ethical norms of kindness, fairness, and personal achievement goals), and how children's respect is related to other ethical emotions and behaviors. The next three chapters provide a summary of our empirical findings. Chapter IV showcases our prominent results on the development of children's conceptions of respect. Results revealed that children, across age, considered prosociality to be the most important component involved in conceptualizations of respect. We also found age-related increases in children's beliefs about fairness as a core component of respect. Children and adolescents also reported feeling higher levels of respect for behavior in the ethical domain (e.g., sharing fairly and inclusion) than behavior in the personal domain (i.e., achieving high grades in school). Chapter V investigates how sympathy and feelings of sadness over wrongdoing relate to respect conceptions and respect for behavior. Our findings show that sadness over wrongdoing was positively associated with adolescents' fairness conceptions of respect. Sympathy was positively related to children's feelings of respect toward others' ethical behavior. In Chapter VI, we present links between respect and social behavior. Our findings provide some evidence that children's feelings of respect are positively linked with prosocial behavior and children's conceptions of respect (particularly those reflecting themes of fairness and equality) are negatively related to physical aggression. In the last two chapters, we discuss the empirical findings and their implications for practice and policy. In Chapter VII, we draw upon recent work in the field of social-emotional development to interpret our results and provide insight into how our findings extend previous seminal work on the development of respect from early childhood to adolescence. Finally, in Chapter VIII, we conclude by discussing implications for educational and clinical practice with children and adolescents, as well as social policies aimed at reducing discrimination and nurturing children's well-being and positive peer relationships.

Toward Generalized Concern: The Development of Compassion and Links to Kind Orientations

Compassion underlies kindness and as such, is important for creating harmonious societies. We examined children and adolescents’ personal experiences of compassion and then how youth with different compassion profiles differed in their kindness (i.e., dispositional sympathy and prosocial behavior). An ethnically diverse sample of 8-, 11-, and 15-year-olds (N = 32; 66% girls) provided narratives of times they felt compassion. Next, in another diverse sample of 7-, 11-, and 15-year-olds (N = 168; 49% girls), we assessed youths’ potential for global compassion (i.e., compassion that transcends intergroup boundaries) using a novel interview procedure. We also collected self- and caregiver-reports of dispositional sympathy and prosocial behavior. Youths’ narratives revealed that youth often experienced compassion toward peers and relatives following both physical and psychological sufferance and often mentioned responding to the suffering other with helping behavior. On average, youth reported moderate levels of global compassion (i.e., compassion toward a suffering victimizer) and developmental trends revealed that 15-year-olds reported lower feelings of compassion than 11-year-olds. Next, latent profile analysis showed that compassion-oriented youth (i.e., youth who displayed moderate-high levels of global compassion) were rated as more prosocial than non-compassion-oriented youth (i.e., those who displayed low levels of global compassion). We discuss findings in relation to theory and research on the development of kindness in general and in intergroup contexts.