Abstract
Building on the Altruism Born of Suffering (ABS) Hypothesis, the present research tests the mediator role of prosocial behavior on the link between perceived personal discrimination and several psychological well-being outcomes in a sample of Turkish-Bulgarian minority youth. We argue that perceived personal discrimination is linked to prosocial behavior, which in turn alleviates discriminations’ detrimental effects on life satisfaction, self-esteem, negative affect and loneliness. Results revealed that prosocial behavior partially mediated the link between perceived personal discrimination and life satisfaction, perceived personal discrimination and self-esteem, and perceived personal discrimination and loneliness, while no mediating effect was found for negative affect. Our research contributes to the existing literature on minority youth dealing with discrimination, and proposes prosocial behavior to be a mechanism of resilient functioning against the maladaptive effects of perceived personal discrimination.
![](http://media.springernature.com/m312/springer-static/image/art%3A10.1007%2Fs12144-019-00352-4/MediaObjects/12144_2019_352_Fig1_HTML.png)
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Excluded items were “I believe that donating goods or money works best when it is tax-deductible” and “One of the best things about doing charity work is that it looks good on my resume”.
References
Aknin, L. B., Broesch, T., Hamlin, J. K., & Van de Vondervoot, J. W. (2015). Prosocial behavior leads to happiness in a small-scale rural society. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 144, 788–795. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000082.
Arbuckle, J. (2009). Amos 18. Crawfordville: AMOS Development Corporation.
Asher, S. R., Hymel, S., & Renshaw, P. D. (1984). Loneliness in children. Child Development, 55, 1456–1464. https://doi.org/10.2307/1130015.
Aydinli-Karakulak, A., Bender, M., Chong, A., & Yue, X. (2016). Applying Western models of volunteering in Hong Kong: The role of empathy and prosocial motivation for volunteering, and motive-experience fit for volunteering satisfaction, duration and frequency. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, 19, 112–123. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajsp.12125.
Barrett, L., Dunbar, R., & Lycett, J. (2002). Human evolutionary psychology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Baumeister, R. F., & Tice, D. M. (1990). Anxiety and social exclusion. Jorunal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 9, 165–195. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.1990.9.2.165.
Benard, B. (2004). Resiliency: What we have learned. San Francisco: WestEd.
Boals, A., & Schuettler, D. (2011). A double-edged sword: Event centrality, PTSD and posttraumatic growth. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25, 817–822. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1753.
Branscombe, N. R., Schmitt, M. T., & Harvey, R. D. (2009). Perceiving pervasive discrimination among African-Americans: Implications for group identification and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 135–149. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.1.135.
Brody, G. H., Chen, Y., McBride Murry, V., Ge, X., Simons, R. L., Gibbons, F. X., et al. (2006). Perceived discrimination and the adjustment of African American youths: A five-year longitudinal analysis with contextual moderation effects. Child Development, 77, 1129–1520. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00927.x.
Broman, C. L. (1997). Race-related factors and life satisfaction among African Americans. Journal of Black Psychology, 23, 36–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/00957984970231004.
Burchinal, M. R., Roberts, J. E., Zeisel, S. A., & Rowley, S. J. (2008). Social risk and protective factors for African American children's academic achievement and adjustment during the transition to middle school. Developmental Psychology, 44, 286–292. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.1.286.
Carlo, G., & Randall, B. A. (2002). The development of a measure of prosocial behaviors for late adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 31, 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1014033032440.
Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin, 98, 310–357 0033-2909/85/$00.75.
DeGarmo, D. S., & Martinez, C. R., Jr. (2006). A culturally informed model of academic. Well-Being for Latino Youth: The importance of discriminatory experiences and social support. Family Relations, 55, 267–278. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-3729.2006.00401.x.
DeWall, C. N., Twenge, J. M., Gitter, S. A., & Baumeister, R. F. (2009). It's the thought that counts: The role of hostile cognition in sha** aggressive responses to social exclusion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 96, 45–59. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013196.
Diener, E., Emmons, R. A., Larsen, R. J., & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 71–75. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa4901_13.
Dimitrov, V. (2000). In search of a homogeneous nation: The assimilation of Bulgaria’s Turkish minority (pp. 1984–1985). Flensburg: European Center for Minority Issues (ECMI) Report.
Dulin, P. L., Gavala, J., Stephens, C., Kostick, M., & McDonald, J. (2012). Volunteering predicts happiness among older Māori and non-Māori in the New Zealand health, work, and retirement longitudinal study. Aging & Mental Health, 16, 617–624. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2011.641518.
Every, D., & Perry, R. (2014). The relationship between perceived religious discrimination and self-esteem for Muslim Australians. Australian Journal of Psychology, 66, 241–248. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajpy.12067.
Farrant, B. M., Devine, T. A. J., Maybery, M. T., & Fletcher, J. (2012). Empathy, perspective taking and prosocial behaviour: The importance of parenting practices. Infant & Child Development, 21, 175–186. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.740.
Fisher, C. B., Wallace, S. A., & Fenton, R. E. (2000). Discrimination distress during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29, 679–695. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026455906512.
Fiske, A. P. (1992). The four elementary forms of sociality: Framework for a united theory of social relations. Psychological Review, 99, 689–723. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.99.4.689.
Frazier, P., Greer, C., Gabrielsen, S., Tennen, H., Park, C., & Tomich, P. (2013). The relation between trauma exposure and prosocial behavior. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 5, 286–294. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027255.
Gaylord-Harden, N. K., & Cunningham, J. A. (2009). The impact of racial discrimination and co** strategies on internalizing symptoms in African American youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 38, 532–543. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-008-9377-5.
Giamo, L. S., Schmitt, M. T., & Outten, H. R. (2012). Perceived discrimination, group identification, and life satisfaction among multiracial people: A test of the rejection-identification model. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 4, 319–328. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029729.
Hartman, A.C. & Morse, B.S. (2015). Wartime Violence, Empathy, and Intergroup Altruism: Evidence from the Ivoirian Refugee Crisis in Liberia. Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6585/759c3c88ccaef7c307fb221ed5bb82b1a4c2.pdf. Accessed July, 2019.
Haslam, S. A., Jetten, J., Postmes, T., & Haslam, C. (2009). Social identity, health and well-being: An emerging agenda for applied psychology. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 58, 1–23. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2008.00379.x.
Haslam, S. A., O’Brien, A., Jetten, J., Vormedal, P., & Penna, S. (2011). Taking the strain: Social identity, social support, and the experience of stress. British Journal of Social Psychology, 44, 355–370. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466605X37468.
Hayes, A. F. (2012). PROCESS: A versatile computational tool for observed variable mediation, moderation, anwd conditional process modeling. Retrieved from http://afhayes.com/introduction-to-mediation-moderation-and-conditional-process-analysis.html. Accessed July, 2019.
Helkama, K., Uutela, A., Pohjanheimo, E., Salminen, S., Koponen, A., & Rantanen-Väntsi, L. (2003). Moral reasoning and values in medical school: A longitudinal study in Finland. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 47, 399–411. https://doi.org/10.1080/00313830308589.
Hitlin, S. (2007). Doing good, feeling good: Values and the self’s moral center. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 2, 249–259. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760701552352.
Jasinskaja-Lahti, I., Liebkind, K., Jaakkola, M., & Reuter, A. (2006). Perceived discrimination, social support networks, and psychological well-being among three immigrant groups. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37, 293–311. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022106286925.
Jetten, J., Branscombe, N. R., Schmitt, M. T., & Spears, R. (2001). Rebels with a cause: Group identification as a response to perceived discrimination from the mainstream. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1204–1213. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167201279012.
Jetten, J., Haslam, C., & Haslam, S. A. (2012). Identity, health and well-being. Hove: Psychology Press.
Lim, D., & DeSteno, D. (2016). Suffering and compassion: The links among adverse life experiences, empathy, compassion, and prosocial behavior. Emotion, 16, 175–182. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000144.
Linley, P. A., Joseph, S., Cooper, R., Harris, S., & Meyer, C. (2003). Positive and negative changes following vicarious exposure to the September 11 terrorist attacks. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 16, 481–485. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025710528209.
Liu, D., Yu, X., Wang, Y., Zhang, H., & Ren, G. (2014). The impact of perception of discrimination and sense of belonging on the loneliness of the children of Chinese migrant workers: A structural equation modeling analysis. International Journal of Mental Health Systems, 8, 52. https://doi.org/10.1186/1752-4458-8-52.
Maeva, M. (2005). Bulgarian Turks and the European Union. In H. Rusu & B. Voicu (Eds.), EU Integration process from EAST to EAST: Civil society and ethnic minorities in a changing world. Proceedings from a round table for young social scientists (pp. 119–126). Sibiu: Psihomedia Publ. House.
Majeno, A., Tsai, K. M., Huynh, V. W., McCreath, H., & Fuligni, A. J. (2017). Discrimination and sleep difficulties during adolescence: The mediating roles of loneliness and perceived stress. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47, 135–147. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0755-8.
Mandleco, B. L., & Peery, J. C. (2000). An organizational framework for conceptualizing resilience in children. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 13, 99–112.
Mays, V. M., Cochran, S. D., & Barnes, N. W. (2007). Race, race-based discrimination, and health outcomes among African Americans. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 201–225. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.57.102904.190212.
Motti-Stefanidi, F., & Asendorpf, J. B. (2012). Perceived discrimination of immigrant adolescents in Greece. European Psychologist, 17, 93–104. https://doi.org/10.1027/1016-9040/a000116.
Myyrya, L., Juujärvi, S., & Pesso, K. (2010). Empathy, perspective taking and personal values as predictors of moral schemas. Journal of Moral Education, 39, 213–233.
Oliver, K. G., Collin, P., Burns, J., & Nicholas, J. (2006). Building resilience in young people through meaningful participation. Australian e-Journal for the advancement of Mental Health, 5, 34–40.
Penner, L. A., Fritzsche, B. A., Craiger, J. P., & Freifeld, T. R. (1995). Measuring the prosocial personality. In J. Butcher & C. D. Spielberger (Eds.), Advances in personality assessment (Vol. 10, pp. 147–163). Hillsdale: Erlbaum..
Petkova, L. (2002). The ethnic Turks in Bulgaria: Social integration and impact on Bulgarian-Turkish relations, 1947–2000. The Global Review of Ethnopolitics, 1, 42–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/14718800208405112.
Piferi, R. L., Jobe, R. L., & Jones, W. H. (2006). Giving to others during national tragedy: The effects of altruistic and egoistic motivations on long-term giving. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 23, 171–184. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407506060185.
Piliavin, J., & Siegl, E. (2007). Health benefits of volunteering in the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 48, 450–464. https://doi.org/10.1177/002214650704800408.
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 879–903. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.5.879.
Post, S. G. (2005). Altruism, happiness and health: It’s good to be good. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 12, 66–77. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327558ijbm1202_4.
Prelow, H. M., Danoff-Burg, S., Swenson, R. R., & Pulgiano, D. (2004). The impact of ecological risk and perceived discrimination on the psychological adjustment of African American and European American Youth. Journal of Community Psychology, 32, 375–389. https://doi.org/10.1002/jcop.20007.
Priest, N., Perry, R., Ferdinand, A., Kelahler, M., & Paradies, Y. (2017). Effects over time of self-reported direct and vicarious racial discrimination on depressive symptoms and loneliness among Australian school students. BMC Psychiatry, 17–50. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-017-1216-3.
Ramos, M. R., Cassidy, C., Reicher, S., & Haslam, S. A. (2012). A longitudinal investigation of the rejection-identification hypothesis. British Journal of Social Psychology, 51, 642–660. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.2011.02029.x.
Roccas, S. (2003). The effects of status on identification with multiple groups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 351–366. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.151.
Romero, A., & Roberts, R. E. (2003). The impact of multiple dimensions of ethnic identity on discrimination and adolescents’ self-esteem. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 33, 2288–2305. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2003.tb01885.x.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rudin, C., & Eminov, A. (1993). Bulgarian nationalism and Turkish language in Bulgaria. In E. F & C. Kramer (Eds.), Language contact language conflict. New York: Peter Lang.
Schmitt, M. T., & Branscombe, N. R. (2002). The meaning and consequences of perceived discrimination in disadvantaged and privileged social groups. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European Review of Social Psychology (Vol. 12, pp. 167–199). Chichester: Wiley.
Schmitt, M. T., Spears, R., & Branscombe, N. R. (2003). Constructing a minority group identity out of shared rejection: The case of international students. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.131
Schmitt, M. T., Branscombe, N. R., Postmes, T., & Garcia, A. (2014). The Consequences of Perceived Discrimination for Psychological Well-Being: A Meta-Analytic Review. Psychological Bulletin, 14, 921–948. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035754.
Seagle, H. L., Jessee, P. O., & Nagy, M. C. (2002). Altruism: Choices of healthy and chronically ill children. Early Child Development and Care, 172, 573–583. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004430215097.
Seaton, E. K., Scottham, K. M., & Sellers, R. M. (2006). The status model of ethnic identity development in African American adolescents: Evidence of structure, trajectories and well-being. Child Development, 77, 1416–1426. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00944.x.
Seaton, E. K., Upton, R. D., Sellers, R. M., Neblett, E. W., & Powell-Hammond, W. (2011). The moderating capacity of racial identity between perceived discrimination and psychological well-being over time among African American youth. Child Development, 82, 1850–1867. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01651.x.
Singer, E., & Ye, C. (2013). The use and effects of incentives in surveys. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 645, 112–141. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716212458082.
Smith, T. B., & Silva, L. (2011). Ethnic identity and personal well-being of people of color: A meta-analysis. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 58, 42–60. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021528.
Spencer, M. B. (2006). Phenomenology and ecological systems theory: Development of diverse groups. In W. Damon & R. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development (Vol. 6, pp. 829–893). New York: Wiley.
Spencer, M. B., Fegley, S. G., & Harplani, V. (2003). A theoretical and empirical examination of identity as co**: Linking co** resources to the self processes of African American youth. Applied Developmental Science, 7, 181–188. https://doi.org/10.1207/S1532480XADS0703_9.
Staub, E. (2015). The Roots of goodness and resistance to evil: Inclusive caring, moral courage, altruism born of suffering, active bystandership, and heroism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Staub, E., & Vollhardt, J. (2008). Altruism born of suffering: The roots of caring and hel** after victimization and other trauma. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 78, 267–280. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014223.
Strohmeier, D. (2016). Diskriminierungserfahrungen und Resilienz bei Jugendlichen [Experiences of Discrimination and Resilience in Youth]. In C. Stark (Ed.) Interkulturelle Soziale Arbeit. Forschungsergebnisse 2016 [Intercultural Social Work. Research findings 2016]. Pro Mente Verlag: Linz.
Stürmer, S., Snyder, M., Kropp, A., & Siem, B. (2006). Empathy-motivated hel**: The moderating role of group membership. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32, 943–956. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167206287363
Switaj, P., Grygiel, P., Anczewska, M., & Wciorka, J. (2015). Experiences of discrimination and the feelings of loneliness in people with psychotic disorders: The mediating effects of self- esteem and support seeking. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 59, 73–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comppsych.2015.02.016.
Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. G. Austin (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7–24). Chicago: Nelson- Hall.
Tang, F. (2009). Late-life volunteering and trajectories of physical health. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 28, 524–533. https://doi.org/10.1177/0733464808327454.
Taylor, L. K., & Hanna, J. R. (2017). Altruism born of suffering among emerging adults in Northern Ireland. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research. https://doi.org/10.1108/JACPR-01-2017-0271.
Tedeschi, R. G. (1999). Violence transformed: Posttraumatic growth in survivors and their societies. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 4, 319–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1359-1789(98)00005-6.
Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (1996). The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory: Measuring the Positive Legacy of Trauma. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 9, 455–471.
Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (2004). Posttraumatic growth: Conceptual foundations and empirical evidence of North Carolina Charlotte CIRCUMSTANCES. Psychological Inquiry, 15, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1501_01.
Thoits, P. A., & Hewitt, L. N. (2001). Volunteer work and well-being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 2011, 42, 115–131. https://doi.org/10.2307/3090173.
Van de Vijver, F. J. R., & Leung, K. (1997). Methods and data analysis for cross-cultural research. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Verkuyten, M. (1998). Perceived Discrimination and Self-Esteem Among Ethnic Minority Adolescents. The Journal of Social Psychology, 138, 479–493. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224549809600402.
Vollhardt, J. R. (2009). Altruism Born of Suffering and Prosocial Behavior Following Adverse Life Events: A Review and Conceptualization. Social Justice Research, 22, 53–97. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11211-009-0088-1.
Vollhardt, J. R., & Staub, E. (2011). Inclusive altruism born of suffering: The relationship between adversity and prosocial attitudes and behavior toward disadvantaged outgroups. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81, 307–315. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-0025.2011.01099.x.
Wang, C. S., Lee, M., Ku, G., & Leung, A. K. Y. (2018). The cultural boundaries of perspective-taking: When and why perspective-taking reduces stereoty**. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44, 928–943. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167218757453.
Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS scales. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 1063–1070. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-514.54.6.1063.
Weinstein, N., & Ryan, R. M. (2010). When hel** helps: Autonomous motivation for prosocial behavior and its influence on well-being for the helper and recipient. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 222–244. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016984.
Wong, C. A., Eccles, J. S., & Sameroff, A. (2003). The influence of ethnic discrimination and ethnic identification on African American adolescents’ school and socioemotional adjustment. Journal of Personality, 71, 1197–1232. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6494.7106012.
Zimmerman, M. A., Stoddard, S. A., Eisman, A. B., Caldwell, C. H., Aiyer, S. M., & Miller, A. (2013). Adolescent resilience: Promotive factors that inform prevention. Child development perspectives, 7, 215–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12042.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Ethical Statement
The submission is not under consideration elsewhere, and APA ethical guidelines were followed in the conduct of the study reported in the manuscript.
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Aydinli-Karakulak, A., Tepe, B., Nurcan, E. et al. How prosocial behavior turns bad into good: An examination among Turkish-Bulgarian adolescents. Curr Psychol 40, 3986–3996 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00352-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00352-4