Abstract: Prosocial behavior refers to behaviors intended to benefit others. Using a person-oriented approach, the current study was to identify the patterns of children's psychosocial adjustment and to explore the association between prosocial behavior and patterns of children's psychosocial adjustment. A sample of 2097 children (mean age=12.27) from sixth grade in a capital city of eastern China was investigated. Children's prosocial behavior was rated by teachers, and information on multiple aspects of psychosocial adjustment (loneliness, depression, aggression, delinquency, peer rejection, peer acceptance, social self-concept, and general self-concept) was collected through self-report, mothers-report and peer nomination. The main findings were as follows: (1) Prosocial behavior was negatively correlated with loneliness, depression, aggression, delinquency and peer rejection, and positively correlated with peer acceptance, social self-concept, and general self-concept. (2) Four patterns of children's psychosocial adjustment were identified. That is internalizing, externalizing, peer rejection, and normal development pattern. (3) Multinomial logistic regression indicated that children's prosocial behavior was associated with the four patterns of psychosocial adjustment. Specifically, prosocial children were more likely to be classified into normal development pattern, and children with low prosocial behavior were more likely to be classified into externalizing and peer rejection pattern instead of internalizing pattern. (4) 6.8% of the highly prosocial children had internalizing problems, whereas 50.2% of the children with low level of prosocial behavior were well adjusted. Compared with normal children, children with low level of prosocial tended to have more psychosocial problems.

Key words: late childhood, prosocial behavior, psychosocial adjustment, person-oriented approach