Daily prosocial actions during the COVID-19 pandemic contribute to giving behavior in adolescence

Prosocial actions are a building block for developing mature and caring social relations. However, the global pandemic may hamper adolescents’ prosocial actions. In this preregistered study, we examined the extent to which adolescents provided daily emotional support during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, 10–25-year-old high school and university students participated at three timepoints (N = 888 at the first timepoint (May 2020); 494 at the second timepoint (Nov 2020) and 373 at the third timepoint (May 2021)). At the first and second timepoint, participants completed 2 weeks of daily diaries on providing emotional support. At all timepoints, participants performed Dictator Games to measure giving to peers, friends and COVID-19 targets (medical doctors, COVID-19 patients, individuals with a poor immune system). Across the three timepoints, adolescents gave more to COVID-19 targets than peers and friends, but giving to COVID-19 target was highest in the beginning of the pandemic (first timepoint relative to second and third timepoint). Results from the first timepoint showed that emotional support directed to friends peaked in mid-adolescence, whereas emotional support towards family members showed a gradual increase from childhood to young adulthood. Furthermore, daily emotional support increased between the first and second timepoint. Daily emotional support to friends predicted giving behavior to all targets, whereas emotional support to family was specifically associated with giving to COVID-19 targets. These findings elucidate the relation between daily actions and prosocial giving to societally-relevant targets in times of crisis, underlying the importance of prosocial experiences during adolescence

Description of analyses for the manuscript: Exposure to movie reckless driving in early adolescence predicts reckless, but not inattentive driving.

<p>A complete detailed report on the factor analysis and Structural Equation models of the manuscript: Exposure to movie reckless driving in early adolescence predicts reckless, but not inattentive driving.</p

Promoting water consumption among children: A three-arm cluster randomised controlled trial testing a social network intervention

Objective: To test the effectiveness of a social network intervention (SNI) to improve children's healthy drinking behaviours. Design: A three-arm cluster randomised control trial design was used. In the SNI, a subset of children were selected and trained as 'influence agents' to promote water consumption-as an alternative to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB)-among their peers. In the active control condition, all children were simultaneously exposed to the benefits of water consumption. The control condition received no intervention. Setting: Eleven schools in the Netherlands. Participants: Four hundred and fifty-one children (M age = 10·74, SDage = 0·97; 50·8 % girls). Results: Structural path models showed that children exposed to the SNI consumed 0·20 less SSB per day compared to those in the control condition (β = 0·25, P = 0·035). There was a trend showing that children exposed to the SNI consumed 0·17 less SSB per day than those in the active control condition (β = 0·20, P = 0·061). No differences were found between conditions for water consumption. However, the moderation effects of descriptive norms (β = -0·12, P = 0·028) and injunctive norms (β = 0·11-0·14, both P = 0·050) indicated that norms are more strongly linked to water consumption in the SNI condition compared to the active control and control conditions. Conclusions: These findings suggest that a SNI promoting healthy drinking behaviours may prevent children from consuming more SSB. Moreover, for water consumption, the prevailing social norms in the context play an important role in mitigating the effectiveness of the SNI

Understanding the behavioral determinants of adolescents’ water consumption: A cross-country comparative study

Substituting the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) with that of water can have a positive effect on adolescents’ health. However, despite the attention on this topic in the Global North, it is relatively understudied in other regions of the world, such as the Caribbean. To guide the development of future interventions, understanding the factors determining water consumption among Caribbean adolescents is important. This study examined the behavioral determinants of water consumption among adolescents in Aruba (the Caribbean) and compared them to those in the Netherlands (Western Europe). We used a theoretical model that integrates the dominant theoretical perspectives in the field of public health, including theories of planned behavior, social norms, and intrinsic motivation. This cross-country study included 1,584 adolescents from Aruba and the Netherlands (52% girls; M = 12.34 years; SD = 2.14). The data were analyzed using regression analyses. This study found that in Aruba, adolescents with higher scores of intrinsic motivation, friends’ descriptive norms, attitudes, and behavioral control regarding water consumption drank more water. Moreover, the associations between water consumption and both intrinsic motivation as well as friends’ descriptive norms for adolescents in Aruba were stronger than those found in the Netherlands. These associations imply that it is even more important for Aruban adolescents than Dutch adolescents to be intrinsically motivated or to perceive their friends often consuming water to drink more water. The cross-country comparison implies that future interventions in Aruba aimed at increasing adolescents’ water consumption as an alternative to SSB should focus on enhancing their intrinsic motivation while considering their friends’ social norms

Communication and COVID-19 Physical Distancing Behavior Among Dutch Youth

Background: Although most young people do not become seriously ill from the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 disease, they do play a role in its spread. It is therefore important that they adhere to the recommended preventive behaviors, most importantly, physical distancing. This study aims to gain a better understanding of the psychosocial determinants of young people’s physical distancing behavior and the role that direct (i.e., interpersonal) and mediated communication (i.e., mass media, social media) about COVID-19 plays in this.Methods: A daily diary study was conducted among 481 Dutch adolescents (secondary school students; age range 10–18 years) and 404 young adults (university students; age range 17–25 years), involving 10 identical daily surveys administered on weekdays during a 2-week period during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (May 2020). The hypotheses were tested with preregistered univariate and multivariate linear mixed-effects models.Results: The perceived descriptive norm (i.e., what friends are doing) was the most important determinant of physical distancing behavior among both adolescents and young adults. The perceived injunctive norm, perceived response efficacy, and perceived severity were also positively associated with physical distancing, albeit less strong. Among adolescents, exposure to information about COVID-19 in the mass media increased their perceptions of the descriptive norm, which in turn increased their physical distancing behavior.Conclusions: For those involved in studying and designing COVID-19-related behavioral interventions and campaigns targeting youth, it is important to consider the social norms that they relate to, and to take into account their perceived severity and response efficacy