Prosociality is a multifaceted concept referring to the many ways in which individuals care about and benefit others. Human prosociality is foundational to social harmony, happiness, and peace; it is therefore essential to understand its underpinnings, development, and cultivation. This handbook provides a state-of-the-art, in-depth account of scientific, theoretical, and practical knowledge regarding prosociality and its development. Its thirty chapters, written by international researchers in the field, elucidate key issues, including: the development of prosociality across infancy, childhood, adolescence, and beyond; the biological, cognitive, emotional, and motivational mechanisms that underlie and influence prosociality; how different socialization agents and social contexts can affect children's prosociality; and intervention approaches aimed at cultivating prosociality in children and adolescents. This knowledge can benefit researchers, students, practitioners, and policy makers seeking to nurture socially responsible, caring youth.

Complaints are often made that recommendations about how to rear children are contradictory and, therefore, not helpful. In this Element we survey the history of theory and research relevant to childrearing in an attempt to show how apparent differences can be resolved. We suggest that socialization occurs in different domains, with each domain fostering socialization in a different way. Thus there is no all-purpose principle or mechanism of socialization but, rather, different forms of relationship between child and agent that serve a different function, involve different rules for effecting behavior change, and facilitate different outcomes. Using this framework, we survey research relevant to different domains, including the roles played by parents, siblings, and peers in the socialization process. We follow this with a discussion of how culture and biology make their contribution to an understanding of domains of socialization.