Creating A child-friendly social environment for fewer conduct problems and more prosocial behaviors among children: A LASSO regression approach
Background: Creating a child-friendly social environment is an important component of promoting child-friendly city development. This study aims to explore the key indicators of friendly family, school and community social environments from the perspective of children's conduct problems and pro...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2024-04-01
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| Series: | Acta Psychologica |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691824000775 |
| _version_ | 1827315562855792640 |
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| author | Meijie Chu Zhiwei Fang Li Mao Honghao Ma Chun-Yang Lee Yi-Chen Chiang |
| author_facet | Meijie Chu Zhiwei Fang Li Mao Honghao Ma Chun-Yang Lee Yi-Chen Chiang |
| author_sort | Meijie Chu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Background: Creating a child-friendly social environment is an important component of promoting child-friendly city development. This study aims to explore the key indicators of friendly family, school and community social environments from the perspective of children's conduct problems and prosocial behaviors. Method: The sample included grade 3–5 students from one public elementary school in the urban areas and another public elementary school in the rural areas of a Chinese city pursuing a child-friendly philosophy. A total of 418 participants were included in this study. Data on conduct problems, prosocial behaviors and the social environment were collected. To effectively select important variables and eliminate estimation bias, this study used LASSO regression to identify key indicators predicting children's conduct problems and prosocial behavior, followed by linear regression coefficient estimation and significance testing. Results: Creating a friendly family environment (ensuring family members' assistance with academic problems) and school environment (reducing cheating, fighting, and unfriendly teacher language) was associated with reduced conduct problems in children. Creating a positive family atmosphere (enhancing children's trust in family members), school environment (increasing parents' awareness of school affairs, reinforcing students' prosocial behavior, increasing extracurricular activity programs, and encouraging student engagement in academics) and community environment (respecting all children in the community) was associated with improving children's prosocial behavior. Conclusions: This study transforms the multidimensional, complex child-friendly social environment evaluation indicator system into concise and specific measurement indicators, which can provide theoretical and practical implications for government decision-making in child-friendly city development through empirical research. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-24T22:58:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-ac2b1e9d75c646819ba4e67ea1375d7f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0001-6918 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-24T22:58:27Z |
| publishDate | 2024-04-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Psychologica |
| spelling | doaj.art-ac2b1e9d75c646819ba4e67ea1375d7f2024-03-18T04:33:48ZengElsevierActa Psychologica0001-69182024-04-01244104200Creating A child-friendly social environment for fewer conduct problems and more prosocial behaviors among children: A LASSO regression approachMeijie Chu0Zhiwei Fang1Li Mao2Honghao Ma3Chun-Yang Lee4Yi-Chen Chiang5State Key Laboratory of Vaccines for Infectious Diseases, Xiang An Biomedicine Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, National Innovation Platform for Industry-Education Integration in Vaccine Research, School of Public Health, Xiamen, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Vaccines for Infectious Diseases, Xiang An Biomedicine Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, National Innovation Platform for Industry-Education Integration in Vaccine Research, School of Public Health, Xiamen, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Vaccines for Infectious Diseases, Xiang An Biomedicine Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, National Innovation Platform for Industry-Education Integration in Vaccine Research, School of Public Health, Xiamen, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Vaccines for Infectious Diseases, Xiang An Biomedicine Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, National Innovation Platform for Industry-Education Integration in Vaccine Research, School of Public Health, Xiamen, ChinaSchool of International Business, Xiamen University Tan Kah Kee College, Zhangzhou, China; Corresponding author.State Key Laboratory of Vaccines for Infectious Diseases, Xiang An Biomedicine Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Vaccinology and Molecular Diagnostics, National Innovation Platform for Industry-Education Integration in Vaccine Research, School of Public Health, Xiamen, China; Correspondence to: Y-C. Chiang, No. 4221-117, Xiang'an South Road, Xiang'an District, Xiamen 361102, China.Background: Creating a child-friendly social environment is an important component of promoting child-friendly city development. This study aims to explore the key indicators of friendly family, school and community social environments from the perspective of children's conduct problems and prosocial behaviors. Method: The sample included grade 3–5 students from one public elementary school in the urban areas and another public elementary school in the rural areas of a Chinese city pursuing a child-friendly philosophy. A total of 418 participants were included in this study. Data on conduct problems, prosocial behaviors and the social environment were collected. To effectively select important variables and eliminate estimation bias, this study used LASSO regression to identify key indicators predicting children's conduct problems and prosocial behavior, followed by linear regression coefficient estimation and significance testing. Results: Creating a friendly family environment (ensuring family members' assistance with academic problems) and school environment (reducing cheating, fighting, and unfriendly teacher language) was associated with reduced conduct problems in children. Creating a positive family atmosphere (enhancing children's trust in family members), school environment (increasing parents' awareness of school affairs, reinforcing students' prosocial behavior, increasing extracurricular activity programs, and encouraging student engagement in academics) and community environment (respecting all children in the community) was associated with improving children's prosocial behavior. Conclusions: This study transforms the multidimensional, complex child-friendly social environment evaluation indicator system into concise and specific measurement indicators, which can provide theoretical and practical implications for government decision-making in child-friendly city development through empirical research.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691824000775Child-friendly social environmentLASSO regressionConduct problemsProsocial behavior |
| spellingShingle | Meijie Chu Zhiwei Fang Li Mao Honghao Ma Chun-Yang Lee Yi-Chen Chiang Creating A child-friendly social environment for fewer conduct problems and more prosocial behaviors among children: A LASSO regression approach Acta Psychologica Child-friendly social environment LASSO regression Conduct problems Prosocial behavior |
| title | Creating A child-friendly social environment for fewer conduct problems and more prosocial behaviors among children: A LASSO regression approach |
| title_full | Creating A child-friendly social environment for fewer conduct problems and more prosocial behaviors among children: A LASSO regression approach |
| title_fullStr | Creating A child-friendly social environment for fewer conduct problems and more prosocial behaviors among children: A LASSO regression approach |
| title_full_unstemmed | Creating A child-friendly social environment for fewer conduct problems and more prosocial behaviors among children: A LASSO regression approach |
| title_short | Creating A child-friendly social environment for fewer conduct problems and more prosocial behaviors among children: A LASSO regression approach |
| title_sort | creating a child friendly social environment for fewer conduct problems and more prosocial behaviors among children a lasso regression approach |
| topic | Child-friendly social environment LASSO regression Conduct problems Prosocial behavior |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691824000775 |
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