Supporting peers during adolescence is beneficial for most, but costly for some

Helping others is a meaningful part of life during the transition to young adulthood, whenadolescents’ social networks, social behaviors and daily responsibilities change. In the currentstudy, we investigated daily associations between helping behaviors and positive and negativeaffect. First year college students (N = 351, 63.5% female, Mage = 18.62 years) completed diarychecklists for eight days, reporting whether they provided instrumental and emotional support toa friend or roommate, as well as their positive and negative emotions. On days that adolescentsprovided instrumental or emotional support to a friend, but not roommate, they felt more positiveemotions. However, providing instrumental support to a friend was associated with more negativeemotions for males, and providing emotional support to a roommate was associated with morenegative emotions for adolescents who were less empathetic. Although helping friends is largelybeneficial, it may come at an emotional cost for males and less empathetic individuals.