The Moderating Role Of Sensory Processing Sensitivity In The Influence Of Parenting Behavior On Children’s Prosocial Behavior

There are significant differences in environmental sensitivity among different individuals(Greven et al.,2019).According to the sensory processing sensitivity theory,individuals with high SPS are sensitive to both positive and negative environments(Acevedo et al.,2018;Slagt et al.,2018).Based on the summary of previous studies,we found that there are several deficiencies: 1.Lack of attention to the children’s positive developmental outcomes.Previous studies mainly focused on the impact of sensory processing sensitivity(SPS)and parenting on children’s negative development outcomes(Greven et al.,2019;Lionetti et al.,2019),while positive developmental outcomes such as prosocial behavior are rarely discussed;2.The role of SPS sub dimension is rarely discussed in previous studies;3.The underlying mechanism of sensory processing sensitivity is not clear.In order to fill these gap,the study selected preschool children aged 3-6 and their parents as the research subjects,and explored the influence of sensory processing sensitivity on the relationships between parenting behavior and child’s prosocial behavior and its mechanism,considering its sub dimensions.In study 1,longitudinal follow-up study was conducted to explore whether children’s sensory processing sensitivity can moderate the relationships between parenting behavior and children’s prosocial behavior by measuring children’s prosocial behavior,parenting behavior and children’s sensory processing sensitivity at two time points six months apart(T1 and T2).The results showed that:(1)in terms of parents’ reported version of children’s prosocial behavior,positive parenting significantly positively predicted children’s prosocial behavior;The interaction model of parents’ negative parenting behavior and children’s SPS on children’s prosocial behavior supports the differential susceptibility model,that is,when parents’ negative parenting level is low,the prosocial behavior of high SPS children is significantly higher than that of low SPS children,but when parents’ negative parenting level is high,the prosocial behavior of high SPS children is significantly lower than that of low SPS children;(2)the exploration of different dimensions of SPS showed that the traits of AES and LST are sensitive to positive environment,that is,when the parents’ negative parenting level is low,the prosocial behavior of high AES children(or high LST children)is significantly higher than that of low AES children(or low LST children),but when the parents’ negative parenting level is high,there is no significant difference between them;(3)Parenting behavior and children’s sensory processing sensitivity can not significantly predict children’s situational prosocial behavior.In general,the influence of children’s SPS characteristics and parents’ negative parenting behavior on children’s prosocial behavior is consistent with the differential susceptibility model,and children’s AES and LST show sensitivity to positive parenting environment.In the study 2,subjects were asked to watch videos about different feedback results of prosocial behavior(positive feedback vs negative feedback)to observe the changes of emotion and prosocial behavior of children with different SPS.The purpose of it is to explore how children’s SPS affect children’s prosocial behavior in the laboratory environment,and its mechanism.The results showed that:(1)the influence of children’s SPS and feedback manipulation on children’s prosocial behavior conformed to the diathesis-stress model.That is to say,compared with low SPS children,high SPS children will have more reduction of positive affect and prosocial intention after watching negative feedback video,but after watching positive feedback video,there is no difference between high and low SPS children’s affect and prosocial behavior;(2)Children’s positive affect plays a marginal mediating role in the above model,that is to say,children’s SPS characteristics will affect the changes of children’s positive affect after watching different feedback videos,then the changes of positive affect will further affect the changes of children’s prosocial intention.In conclusion,based on longitudinal and experimental studies,this study supports that the effect of sensory processing sensitivity on children’s prosocial behavior conforms to the differential susceptibility model and diathesis-stress model.Furthermore,this study verified that emotional response as a potential mechanism could explain the changes of prosocial behavior of children with different SPS in the face of different feedback.These made a theoretical contribution to the exploration of sensory processing sensitivity theory and its mechanism,and could provide targeted suggestions for improving children’s prosocial development.