Help-seeking and helping behavior in children as a function of psychosocial competence

Research on prosocial behavior has supported the belief that psychosocial competence characteristics enhance helping behavior. Tyler and others have hypothesized that helpseeking is also a constructive competence-related behavior. The present investigation was designed to assess whether the correlates of psychosocial competence differences found in more effective psychosocial functioning among primary school children in the U.S. would characterize children in India and be reflected in their help-seeking and helping behaviors. Twenty-eight pairs of 8 to 10-year-old children participated in this 3 × 2 factorial design study. High and low competence subjects were selected using scores on the Psychosocial Competence Incomplete Stories Test (PCIST) adapted for Indian children. Results show that constructiveness of helpseeking and helping were a function of psychosocial competence. This was also a three-way interaction effect of sex and psychosocial competence level of the helpseeker and of the helper on the level of constructiveness of help-seeking behavior. Tyler and colleagues had previously demonstrated that children from the U.S. who are more psychosocially competent (more self-efficacious, interpersonally trusting, and actively planful) function more effectively in their lives. The current results extend those findings by demonstrating that help-seeking and helping behavior are also a function of these psychosocial competence characteristics. They also indicate sex differences in the relationship of psychosocial competence to interpersonal interactions among these children in India. Psychosocial competence and developmental and cultural implications are noted.