The moral self in formation: Caregiver emotional availability and early prosocial behavior predict preschoolers’ moral self-concept.

During early childhood, children develop a moral self-concept (MSC), reflecting the representation of their own moral behavioral preferences. Little is known about the developmental processes that relate to the emergence of the MSC. This longitudinal study followed participants from infancy to preschool age (n = 99-139; 49%-55% girls, 45%-51% boys, mostly Caucasian). It investigated the relations between the quality of early social interactions, prosocial behaviors, and the development of the MSC. We assessed maternal emotional availability at 1 year of age, children's prosocial behaviors (helping, sharing, comforting) at 3 years of age, and their MSC at 4 years of age. Children's comforting and sharing behavior at 3 years of age, but not their helping behavior, was associated with their MSC development. Interestingly, maternal emotional availability predicted MSC indirectly through its relation to children's comforting behavior, suggesting a mediated pathway. The study highlights developmental trajectories from early social interactions to how children think about their own prosociality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).