Children’s Prosocial Resilience in the Face of Adversity: the Role of Narrative Coherence

Childhood adversity undermines children’s positive adaptation, including engagement in prosocial behaviors that benefit others. However, children’s capacity to make meaning of challenging experiences in a balanced and organized manner (i.e., narrative coherence) may contribute to better-than-expected psychosocial outcomes in the context of adversity. This multi-informant longitudinal study tested whether children’s narrative coherence at age 6 predicted better-than-expected prosocial outcomes at age 8 in the wake of early childhood adversity exposure from birth to age 4 (i.e., prosocial resilience) in a sample of 250 children (50% female sex assigned at birth, 46% Latine). Using a standardized residual approach, children’s narrative coherence predicted better-than-expected prosocial outcomes relative to the overarching negative effect of early childhood adversity on prosocial behavior in middle childhood. This study suggests that children’s ability to process difficult life events in a way that is balanced, accurate, and open to modification contributes to their prosocial resilience in the wake of early adversity.