Not more harm, but less help: Dynamic associations among childhood emotional maltreatment, prosocial behavior, and bullying involvement in Chinese adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Although studies have revealed the association between childhood emotional maltreatment and adolescents' social behavior, there remains a lack of integrative examination of both relationship-enhancing and relationship-damaging behavioral orientations, namely prosocial behavior and bullying involvement, particularly within the Chinese context. The potential dynamic relationships among them remain insufficiently understood. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine dynamic associations among childhood emotional maltreatment, prosocial behavior, and bullying involvement, and to explore their developmental patterns. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: A total of 1214 Chinese adolescents (Mage = 15.46 ± 0.71; 60.71% male) were followed across three waves. METHODS: Cross-lagged panel network analysis was conducted using R version 4.5.2. RESULTS: The results showed that: (1) a stable cascading structure emerged within the prosocial behavior cluster, with altruistic prosocial behavior exerting stronger influence and relational prosocial behavior showing higher predictability; (2) The bullying involvement cluster exhibited a diffusion pattern, in which multiple early bullying behaviors promoted the development of bullying perpetration, while later bullying victimization further activated other forms of bullying and ultimately converged into cyberbullying victimization; (3) In cross-cluster associations, early emotional neglect weakened the development of multiple forms of prosocial behavior, common-weal-social rule prosocial behavior showed a buffering effect, whereas cyberbullying victimization amplified the negative effects of emotional abuse and emotional neglect; (4) In later development, trait-based prosocial behavior gradually demonstrated a protective effect against various adverse experiences. CONCLUSIONS: Childhood emotional maltreatment undermines the development of prosocial behavior, while prosocial behavior and bullying involvement follow distinct developmental patterns across adolescence.