Socioeconomic status and prosocial behaviors among Chinese emerging adults: Sequential mediators of parental warmth and personal belief in a just world

Abstract This study aims to explore the association between family socioeconomic status (SES) and prosocial behaviors and whether parental warmth and personal belief in a just world (PBJW) play sequential mediating roles. Data were obtained from a cross-sectional sample of Chinese emerging adults (N = 960, Mage = 20.23 years, 54.5% female) who completed a set of questionnaires on family SES, parental warmth, PBJW, and prosocial behaviors. Results showed that the relationship between family SES and general prosocial behaviors was mediated by parental warmth, but not by PBJW. More importantly, the relationship between family SES and general prosocial behaviors was sequentially mediated by parental warmth and PBJW. In addition, the examination of sub-dimensions of prosocial behaviors revealed that the mechanism from family SES to these different types of prosocial behaviors was the same as the mechanism from family SES to general prosocial behaviors. These findings provide evidence for ecological systems theory and highlight that to elevate prosocial behaviors among emerging adults with low family SES, attention should be paid to parental warmth and emerging adults’ perceptions of justice.