Mapping Trends in Research on the Enhancement of Students' Social Skills and Prosocial Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review

Background/purpose. The enhancement of students' social skills and prosocial behavior in the learning process in the school environment is a must as an effort to minimize the emergence of various moral corruptions among students, such as acts of violence, bullying, being individual, lack of empathy, lack of motivation to learn, which has an impact on students' academic achievement. In this case, it is important to map the development of research related to strengthening social skills and prosocial behavior of students in the school environment.

Materials/methods. The development of students' social skills and prosocial behavior is essential in shaping their character and fostering positive interactions. This study aims to map research trends on enhancing social skills and prosocial behavior using a systematic literature review approach. The research data was collected from the Scopus database, covering publications from 2020 to 2024, with a total of 1,624 indexed journal article metadata. Data analysis was conducted using the R Program and Biblioshiny software combined with VOSviewer to identify research trends, thematic patterns, and frequently explored concepts.

Results. The findings revealed that research publications related to social skills and prosocial behavior of students from 2020 to 2024, indexed by Scopus, were highest in 2022, reaching 403 published articles. In this case, Carlo, G. became the most productive author with 14 articles, and the United States occupied the first position as a country with author correspondence with 363 published articles regarding the study of social skills and prosocial behavior of students. Mapping the publication literature also shows that research on the study of social skills and prosocial behavior of students with the topics of "social interaction", "social cognition", "child parent relations", "problem behavior", "prosociality”, “morality”, “empathy”, “human relations”, “student aggretion”, “depression”, “gender”, and “decision making” has novelty as research issues and can be a research opportunity.

Conclusion. The results of the literature review mapping are also intended to provide academic views and recommendations for further research processes related to the position of social skills and prosocial behavior of students in the learning process in the school environment.

Keywords: Social skills, prosocial behavior, school, literature review

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