This chapter outlines key foci for future research on prosociality and its development. It seeks to identify challenges and priorities and to delineate exciting possibilities for moving the field forward. These include the need for a useful taxonomy to help map the different dimensions and forms of prosociality across development; a call to extend the construct of prosociality by incorporating the perspectives of children and individuals from diverse cultures and backgrounds; the need to integrate knowledge from different levels of analysis; the notion that for a more complete understanding of prosociality in humans, both specificities and commonalities in processes of prosocial development must be addressed; and the need to understand major obstacles to prosocial development – how is it that, despite the human potential for prosociality, some individuals do not become prosocial? – and how to transcend such barriers. Addressing these issues, using rigorous and innovative work, will promote a new era of prosociality science.

In this chapter, we review developmental theories of prosocial behavior. We begin by briefly discussing the ways in which the grand theories of development have been used to explain prosocial development, as well as some of the major biologically oriented arguments. We then present a comprehensive model of prosocial behavior that includes the multiple individual and contextual factors that contribute to prosocial actions in children. Next, we discuss the multidimensional nature of young children’s prosocial behavior – a topic of considerable research in the last decade – and suggest ways that the comprehensive model is relevant for prosocial development in very young children.

In this chapter, we review existing literature on the development of prosociality throughout the lifespan by highlighting the different factors/motives underlying individuals’ prosocial actions and their beneficial effects across time. First, we define the concept of prosociality and discuss the main theoretical issues related to its study from a lifespan perspective. Next, we review key empirical findings on prosociality by considering three main developmental phases (infancy and childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, adulthood and older adults) and we underline how an analysis of the main motives/factors operating in each phase can help explain the variability in prosocial development. Based on our review, we also offer some guidelines for the design of intervention actions that are developmentally appropriate and meaningful for the targeted age groups. Finally, we conclude by identifying potential gaps in the literature and we indicate promising directions for future studies.