The Relationship of Autonomous Motivation to Prosocial Behavior: Mediator Role of Prosocial Friends and Friendship Quality among Turkish Adolescents

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the roles of friends and friendship quality as two possible mediators to elucidate the underlying processes that link the autonomous motivation and prosocial behaviors among adolescents in Turkey. Participants were 419 adolescents who were in 9th grade students (Mage = 14.37 years, SD = .35) and selected from different high schools located central regions of the city. Adolescents completed questionnaires regarding their prosocial self-regulation, prosocial friends, friendship quality and other-oriented prosocial behaviors. The results of the study demonstrated that autonomous motivation in prosocial behavior was related to increasing in other-oriented prosocial behaviors by having more prosocial friends and more positive friendship quality for boys and by having more positive friendship quality for girls.

Keywords

• Autonomous motivation,Prosocial behavior,Prosocial friends,Friendship quality

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