Distinct prosocial behaviors associated with persistent symptom trajectories in psychiatric disorders
Abstract
Prosocial behavior, the tendency to act for others’ benefit, is essential for mental health. Although social contexts strongly shape prosocial behavior in healthy individuals, its relevance across psychiatric disorders remains unclear. We examined whether context-dependent prosocial behaviors were associated with baseline psychiatric symptoms and longitudinal symptom trajectories. In a one-year longitudinal cohort study, Swedish adults ( n = 4484) with at least one self-reported psychiatric disorder completed standardized questionnaires of six prosocial behavior subtypes at baseline, followed by monthly reports of alcohol use, substance use, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Latent class linear mixed models identified longitudinal symptom trajectories, and logistic regression models investigated their associations with baseline prosocial behavior subtypes. All models adjusted for demographic covariates and shared variance across psychiatric symptom domains. Three prosocial behavior subtypes showed longitudinal associations with stable psychiatric symptom trajectory classes. Higher anonymous prosociality was associated with lower odds of belonging to the stable high alcohol use trajectory (OR = 0.89, p = 0.013). Higher public prosociality was associated with higher odds of belonging to the stable high substance use trajectory (OR = 1.15, p = 0.036). Higher emotional prosociality was associated with higher odds of belonging to the stable high anxiety trajectory (OR = 1.25, p < 0.001). No prosocial subtype was associated with depressive symptom trajectories. Overall, context-dependent prosocial behaviors were associated with persistent levels of alcohol use, substance use, and anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that specific prosocial behaviors may refine transdiagnostic models of social dysfunction by indexing stable patterns of psychiatric symptom burden.
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BibTeX
@article{jangard2026distinct,
title = {{Distinct prosocial behaviors associated with persistent symptom trajectories in psychiatric disorders}},
author = {Simon Jangard and Joana B. Vieira and Maria Å. Garke and Olivia Ojala and Kristoffer N. T. Månsson and Maria Hedman-Lagerlöf and Karolina Sörman and Samir El Alaoui and Alexander Rozental and David Forsström and Johan Lundin and Shervin Shahnavaz and Tobias Lundgren and Andreas Olsson and Nitya Jayaram-Lindström},
journal = {Translational Psychiatry},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41398-026-04515-3},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-026-04515-3},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Distinct prosocial behaviors associated with persistent symptom trajectories in psychiatric disorders
AU - Simon Jangard
AU - Joana B. Vieira
AU - Maria Å. Garke
AU - Olivia Ojala
AU - Kristoffer N. T. Månsson
AU - Maria Hedman-Lagerlöf
AU - Karolina Sörman
AU - Samir El Alaoui
AU - Alexander Rozental
AU - David Forsström
AU - Johan Lundin
AU - Shervin Shahnavaz
AU - Tobias Lundgren
AU - Andreas Olsson
AU - Nitya Jayaram-Lindström
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/05
JO - Translational Psychiatry
DO - 10.1038/s41398-026-04515-3
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-026-04515-3
AB - Prosocial behavior, the tendency to act for others’ benefit, is essential for mental health. Although social contexts strongly shape prosocial behavior in healthy individuals, its relevance across psychiatric disorders remains unclear. We examined whether context-dependent prosocial behaviors were associated with baseline psychiatric symptoms and longitudinal symptom trajectories. In a one-year longitudinal cohort study, Swedish adults ( n = 4484) with at least one self-reported psychiatric disorder completed standardized questionnaires of six prosocial behavior subtypes at baseline, followed by monthly reports of alcohol use, substance use, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Latent class linear mixed models identified longitudinal symptom trajectories, and logistic regression models investigated their associations with baseline prosocial behavior subtypes. All models adjusted for demographic covariates and shared variance across psychiatric symptom domains. Three prosocial behavior subtypes showed longitudinal associations with stable psychiatric symptom trajectory classes. Higher anonymous prosociality was associated with lower odds of belonging to the stable high alcohol use trajectory (OR = 0.89, p = 0.013). Higher public prosociality was associated with higher odds of belonging to the stable high substance use trajectory (OR = 1.15, p = 0.036). Higher emotional prosociality was associated with higher odds of belonging to the stable high anxiety trajectory (OR = 1.25, p < 0.001). No prosocial subtype was associated with depressive symptom trajectories. Overall, context-dependent prosocial behaviors were associated with persistent levels of alcohol use, substance use, and anxiety symptoms. These findings suggest that specific prosocial behaviors may refine transdiagnostic models of social dysfunction by indexing stable patterns of psychiatric symptom burden.
SN - 2158-3188
ER -