ArticleCurrent directions in psychological science2025
The unintended negative consequences of help in childhood.
Article in Current directions in psychological science, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- "Here, Let Me Do It for You": Psychological Consequences of Receiving Direct and Indirect Help in Childhood.Child developmentPooled it
- Mastery-Oriented or Outcome-Oriented Help? How Recipient Ethnicity and Task Difficulty Shape Children's Helping Behavior.Developmental science · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Exchanges of help in childhood produce many positive consequences: They increases academic success, promote happiness, and foster positive peer relations. For these reasons, caretakers encourage helping behavior early in life and schools implement intervention programs to nurture children's prosociality. An often-overlooked issue, however, is that providing and receiving help do not always produce positive outcomes. We review the latest research that converges to suggest that when children receive, witness, or provide help, there can be unintended negative consequences-for example, receiving help can produce feelings of incompetence. The discussion of the paper grapples with how to balance the negative and positive outcomes of helping behavior, with an eye toward promoting children's wellbeing and social cohesion in society.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.