This post was written by Anne Gaule, Ph.D., and Essie Viding, Ph.D., with edits from Patricia Lockwood, Ph.D., and Jo Cutler, Ph.D.

Helping other people—be it your friend moving house or a colleague with their work—often requires effort. However, research has shown that helping others or engaging in what psychologists call "prosocial" behaviors has a range of positive impacts on our social relationships, our physical and mental well-being, and even our longevity.

This is as true when we are young as it is in adulthood. There is good evidence that when young people engage in prosocial behaviors, this helps them to form the building blocks they need to establish good relationships with others, which, in turn, can be protective against common mental health and behavior problems.

However, there is a group of young people that engage in antisocial behavior, have difficulty in their social relationships, and also appear to show worryingly low levels of prosocial behaviors. This pattern of behaviors in adolescence is termed "conduct problems." A new study explores how teenagers with conduct problems engage in effortful prosocial behaviors and highlights important factors we may need to consider when designing interventions to support this vulnerable group.

As outlined above, research indicates that young people with conduct problems show low levels of prosocial behaviors. However, just because someone behaves antisocially does not mean that they will never behave prosocially. Individual differences among adolescents with conduct problems (or psychological characteristics that define who we are and how we process information about the world) have not received a lot of attention when it comes to prosocial behavior. These differences matter—especially when we are trying to design effective interventions.

One source of individual........

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