American and Chinese Children's Evaluations of Personal Domain Events and Resistance to Parental Authority

A total of 267 five‐, seven‐, and ten‐year‐olds (M = 7.62), 147 in Hong Kong and 120 in the United States, evaluated hypothetical personal (and moral) events described as either essential or peripheral to actors' identity. Except for young Chinese in the peripheral condition, straightforward personal events were overwhelmingly evaluated as acceptable based on personal justifications. Children primarily endorsed compliance, but attributed negative emotions to actors when mothers forbade personal choices, especially when described as essential to identity. Conventional justifications declined among Chinese children and pragmatic justifications for these judgments increased with age for all children, as did judgments that personal events were up to the child. Rules were seen as more legitimate and events were seen as more up to mothers to decide for moral than personal events.     

Social Interactions in Preschool Classrooms and the Development of Young Children's Conceptions of the Personal

Two studies examined preschool teacher and child interactions regarding personal, moral, and social-conventional issues in the classroom and the development of personal concepts in young children. In Study 1, 20 preschool classrooms, 10 with 3-year-olds and 10 with 4-year-olds, were observed to assess children's and teachers' interactions regarding personal, moral, social-conventional, and mixed events. Teachers used more direct messages regarding moral and social-conventional events than personal and mixed events. Teachers offered children choices, but they rarely negotiated personal events with children. Children responded with personal choice assertions when adults offered them choices, but adults did not differ in the frequency that they negated or affirmed children's assertions of personal choice. In Study 2, 120 preschool children, nearly evenly divided between males and females at 3, 4, and 5 years of age, were interviewed regarding their conceptions of personal events in the classroom and home. With age, children judged that they should retain control over personal decisions in both contexts. In both judgments and social interactions, teachers and children identified a personal domain in which children can and should make choices about how to structure their activities and assert their independence in the classroom.     

Bullying and repeated conventional transgressions in Swedish schools: How do gender and bullying roles affect students’ conceptions?

Bullying is a moral transgression. Recognizing the importance of approaching bullying from a moral perspective, the present study examines whether children's judgments and reasoning to justify their judgments differ between bullying and repeated conventional transgressions. Our study also explores differences by gender and differences among bullies, victims, and uninvolved students. Participants included 381 students from 13 elementary schools in Sweden. Findings indicate that children judge bullying as more wrong than repeated conventional transgressions; use moral reasons more frequently in their justifications about bullying than about repeated conventional transgressions; and use conventional reasons more frequently to justify their judgments on repeated conventional transgressions as compared with bullying. Female students and nonbullies judged bullying and repeated conventional transgressions as more wrong and used moral reasons more frequently in their justifications of judgments of bullying than did male students and bullies. Male students reported bullying more than did female students. Implications for practice are also discussed.     

Danish majority children's reasoning about exclusion based on gender and ethnicity

This study investigated 282 eight- to twelve-year-old Danish majority children's judgments and justifications of exclusion based on gender and ethnicity (i.e., Danish majority children and ethnic-minority children of a Muslim background). Children's judgments and reasoning varied with the perpetrator of the exclusion and the social identity of the target. Children assessed exclusion based on ethnicity as less acceptable than exclusion based on gender and used more moral reasoning for the former than the latter. Children judged it less acceptable for a teacher than a child to exclude a child protagonist. Children were sensitive to status, judging it less acceptable to exclude a less powerful group member. The findings are discussed in relation to intergroup relations in Denmark.     

Adolescents' and Parents' Conceptions of Parental Authority and Personal Autonomy

Conceptions of parental authority and ratings of adolescent-parent conflict were assessed in 68 sixth, eighth, and tenth graders and their parents. Boundaries of adolescent personal jurisdiction and conflict over these boundaries were examined. Participants judged the legitimacy of parental authority and rated the frequency and intensity of conflict regarding 24 hypothetical moral, conventional, personal, multifaceted (e.g., containing conventional and personal components), prudential, and friendship issues. Adolescents and parents agreed that parents should retain authority regarding moral and conventional issues. Parents treated multifaceted, friendship, prudential, and personal issues as more contingent on parental authority than did adolescents, based on conventional, prudential, and psychological reasons, whereas adolescents treated these issues as under personal jurisdiction, based on personal concerns. Personal reasoning and judgments increased with age. Multifaceted issues were discussed more than all other issues, but moral and conventional conflicts were more intense than all other conflicts. The findings are discussed in terms of previous research on parental authority and adolescent-parent conflict during adolescence.     

A study of children’s conceptions of school rules by investigating their judgements of transgressions in the absence of rules

This study investigated 202 elementary school children’s judgements and reasoning about transgressions when school rules regulating these transgressions have been removed in hypothetical school situations. As expected, moral transgressions were judged as more wrong and less accepted than structuring, protecting and etiquette transgressions. In turn, etiquette transgressions were judged as less wrong and more accepted than moral, structuring and protecting transgressions. Structuring transgressions were judged beyond expectations as more wrong and less accepted than protecting transgressions. Judgements and justifications made by the children showed that they discriminated between transgressions as a function of school‐rule category (relational/moral rules, structuring rules, protecting rules and etiquette rules). The findings confirm as well as extend previous social‐cognitive domain theory research on children’s socio‐moral reasoning.     

Mixed-Domain Events: The Influence of Moral and Conventional Components on the Development of Social Reasoning

The purpose of the current study was to examine children's reasoning about mixed-domain events containing both conventional and moral Components (i.e., violating a conventional rule and negatively affecting others). The participants were preschoolers, first graders, and third graders (N = 100). Children evaluated (a) the legitimacy of an authority to permit mixed-domain acts to occur, and (b) the acceptability of the mixed-domain events when permitted and prohibited by an authority. In addition, children rated the seriousness of mixed-domain rule violations. Results showed that children with increasing age were able to identify the moral components of the mixed-domain events and combined moral and conventional issues in their reasoning about the events. Preschoolers and first graders were more likely than third graders to view the mixed-domain acts as only conventional.     

Mixed-Domain Events: The Influence of Moral and Conventional Components on the Development of Social Reasoning

The purpose of the current study was to examine children's reasoning about mixed-domain events containing both conventional and moral Components (i.e., violating a conventional rule and negatively affecting others). The participants were preschoolers, first graders, and third graders (N = 100). Children evaluated (a) the legitimacy of an authority to permit mixed-domain acts to occur, and (b) the acceptability of the mixed-domain events when permitted and prohibited by an authority. In addition, children rated the seriousness of mixed-domain rule violations. Results showed that children with increasing age were able to identify the moral components of the mixed-domain events and combined moral and conventional issues in their reasoning about the events. Preschoolers and first graders were more likely than third graders to view the mixed-domain acts as only conventional.     

Preschool Children's Judgments about Hypothetical and Actual Transgressions

Preschoolers' ( N = 112) judgments about hypothetical and actual moral and conventional transgressions were examined. Equal numbers of boys and girls at 2 ages (3 and 4 years old) either made judgments about 8 hypothetical moral and conventional transgressions or were interviewed on the same dimensions about 8 naturally occurring moral and conventional transgressions they witnessed in their preschools. Children judged both hypothetical and actual moral transgressions to be more serious, punishable, generalizably wrong, and independent of rules and authority than conventional transgressions. Regardless of domain, hypothetical transgressions were judged to be more wrong independent of rules than actual transgressions, and hypothetical (but not actual) moral transgressions were judged to be more independent of rules than conventional transgressions. 3-year-old girls judged the wrongness of actual moral transgressions to be more independent of authority than did 3-year-old boys. Similar findings were obtained when hypothetical and actual transgressions were matched, and domain differences were still obtained when individual items were examined. Findings are discussed in terms of previous research on preschoolers' conceptions of rules and transgressions.     

Social Interactions in the Home and the Development of Young Children's Conceptions of the Personal

Observations and interviews of 20 middle-class 3- and 4-year-olds and their mothers were conducted to examine the emergence of the personal domain. Interviews with children showed that 3- and 4-year-olds make a conceptual distinction between personal, and moral or conventional issues. Interviews with mothers indicated that they viewed it as important for young children to have freedom of choice over personal issues to develop a sense of autonomy and individuality. Observations in the home revealed that mothers tended to give direct social messages to children about moral, conventional, and prudential events, and were more likely to give indirect social messages in the form of offered choices to children in response to personal issues. Mothers were more likely to negotiate with children over personal than other social events. These data revealed a pattern of social interactions concordant with event domain, which included a reciprocal system along the border between the personal and the conventional.     

Children's distributive justice judgments: aversive racism in Euro-American children?

Euro-American 2nd- and 4th-grade children (Ms=7.67 and 9.82 years) heard stories about Black and White characters who produced artwork yielding a windfall reward. Children allocated rewards to characters, justified their allocations, and judged the fairness of patterns representing different justice principles. Older children allocated more money to Black than White productive characters and to White than Black needy characters, consistent with predictions from aversive racism theory. Rationales most often relied on equality principles; older children gave more equity-based justifications for Black than for White characters. Fairness ratings of patterns representing 4 justice principles revealed effects for age and character race. Implications for understanding the developmental course of moral judgments as they apply to racial differences are discussed.     

Adolescents' and parents' conceptions of parental authority

This study assessed adolescents' and parents' conceptions of parental authority. Subjects were 102 children ranging from fifth to twelfth grade (age range = 10.2-18.3 years) from 2-parent families and their parents. They were divided into 4 groups according to children's grade level. Subjects were presented with 15 items pertaining to family transgressions (4 moral, 4 conventional, 3 personal, and 4 multifaceted, containing conventional and personal components). For each act, subjects were asked to judge the legitimacy of parental jurisdiction, justify its wrongness or permissibility, and assess its contingency on parental authority. As expected, all family members treated both moral and conventional issues as more legitimately subject to parental jurisdiction than multifaceted and personal issues. With increasing age of the adolescent, both parents and children became less likely to reason about the multifaceted and personal issues as conventional and sort them as contingent on parental authority; they became more likely to reason about and sort them as under the adolescents' personal jurisdiction. Adolescents at all ages, however, were more likely to reason about the multifaceted and personal issues as personal and sort them as under personal jurisdiction than were parents. Parents were more likely to reason conventionally and sort them as contingent on parental authority than were adolescents. These findings are discussed in terms of research on adolescent development, individuation, and social-cognitive development.     

Perceptions and Evaluations of Child Transgressions and Disciplinary Techniques in High- and Low-Risk Mothers and Their Children

Perceptions and evaluations of children's transgressions (moral, conventional, personal), parental disciplinary actions (power assertion, love withdrawal, induction), and expected outcomes (compliance) were assessed in matched high- and low-risk (for physical abuse) mothers and their children. High-risk mothers and their children evaluated conventional and personal transgressions as more wrong than low-risk mothers and their children. Although both high- and low-risk mothers and their children varied disciplinary responses according to the type of transgression, high-risk mothers used power assertion (verbal and physical force) more often and induction (reasoning and explanation) less often. High-risk mothers also perceived the use of power assertion by others as more appropriate. With respect to outcomes, high-risk mothers, compared to low-risk mothers, expected less compliance following moral transgressions and more compliance after personal transgressions. Children of both high-and low-risk mothers made compliance predictions following moral and personal transgressions that were similar to the low-risk mothers' predictions.     

Adolescent Civic and Political Engagement: Associations Between Domain-Specific Judgments and Behavior

Judgments and justifications for different forms of civic involvement and their associations with organized and civic behavior were examined in 312 middle-class primarily White adolescents ( M  = 17.01 years). Adolescents applied moral, conventional, and personal criteria to distinguish involvement in community service, standard political, social movement, and social gathering activities. Males judged standard political involvement to be more obligatory and important than did females, who judged community service to be more obligatory and important than did males. For each form of civic involvement, greater involvement was associated with more positive judgments and fewer personal justifications. Structural equation modeling indicated that adolescents' judgments about specific types of civic involvement were associated with similar forms of civic behaviors.     

Promoting social inclusion in the early years of elementary school: a focus on children’s epistemic beliefs for moral reasoning

As classrooms continue to diversify, there is an increasing need to understand children’s inclusive behaviours and moral reasoning. Research shows that epistemic beliefs (beliefs about knowing and knowledge) can influence reasoning for adults, but we know little about this relationship in younger children or how classroom contexts relate to epistemic beliefs for moral reasoning. Thirty-one elementary school children (mean age 6.5 years) participated in epistemic beliefs and moral reasoning tasks in the first year of a three-year longitudinal study. Findings showed that while children described objectivist epistemic beliefs (right/wrong answers) about social inclusion, their justifications revealed an unexpected, more complex set of epistemic beliefs. Implications for moral pedagogies are discussed.     

Mothers' Concepts of Young Children's Areas of Personal Freedom

White suburban working- to upper-middle-class mothers ( N = 40) of children ages 5 and 7 were interviewed regarding their concepts of children's areas of personal discretion, autonomy, and individuality. Mothers treated standardized moral, conventional, and prudential items as issues that mothers should control, while standardized personal items were treated as up to the child. In open-ended interviews, mothers reported setting limits around issues of safety, family conventions, and daily routines but permitted children to make decisions about food, recreational activities, clothes, and playmates. Mothers viewed mother-child conflict as occurring over these same issues and viewed children's choices as helping them to develop autonomy and competence. Mothers viewed their roles as educators and nurturers and valued the development of individuality in their children, which was thought to emerge in infancy or toddlerhood. Few age differences were observed, but gender differences were found in the ways mothers characterized boys and girls' resistances to parental authority and in the content of mother-child disputes. Results were interpreted in terms of the emergence of the personal domain in children.     

Evaluations of child transgressions, disciplinary choices, and expected child compliance in a no-cry and a crying infant condition in physically abusive and comparison mothers

OBJECTIVE: Several components of a social information processing model of child physical abuse were tested. Abusive and comparison mothers' evaluations of children's transgressions, choices of disciplinary techniques, expectations for children's compliance following discipline, and appraisals of the appropriateness of disciplinary choice were examined in a no-cry and a crying-infant condition. METHOD: Thirty physically abusive and 30 matched comparison mothers were individually matched on ethnic background, age, education, marital status, number of children, and cognitive ability. Mothers were asked to respond to questions related to vignettes describing children engaging in moral, conventional, and personal transgressions. RESULTS: As predicted, abusive, relative to comparison, mothers evaluated conventional and personal, but not moral, transgressions as more wrong, used more power assertion (physical and verbal force), expected less compliance from their own children, and appraised their own disciplinary responses as less appropriate. In contrast to expectations, there were no group by cry condition interaction effects on any of the study measures. CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide additional support for the view that abusive, relative to comparison, mothers are different in their evaluations and expectations of their own children's behaviors and that they more frequently select aversive disciplinary techniques. However, given the lack of an expected differential impact of a stressful condition on the cognitions and disciplinary choices in abusive mothers, additional research is needed.     

Adolescents' Conceptions of Teachers' Authority and Their Relations to Rule Violations in School

Conceptions of teachers' authority and reported misconduct regarding 20 moral, conventional, personal, contextually conventional, and prudential issues were assessed in 120 fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh graders (mean ages = 10.66, 12.88, 15.04, and 17.25 years, respectively). Adolescents viewed moral, conventional, and prudential issues as legitimately subject to teachers' authority and personal issues as under personal jurisdiction, but they were equivocal about contextually conventional issues. Fifth graders judged all acts as more legitimately subject to teachers' authority, all rule violations as more negative, and personal and prudential issues as personal more than did older students. Conventional misconduct was more frequent and moral misconduct was less frequent than other rule violations, but both were greater among boys than girls. Adolescents' negative rule evaluations, fewer rules, greater dislike for school, poorer grades, and living in single- or step-parent families predicted teacher- and self-reported misconduct. Relations to previous research on conceptions of adult authority, school misconduct, and autonomy development are discussed.     

Japanese mothers' views of young children's areas of personal discretion

Sixty-four Japanese mothers of 3- to 6-year-olds were interviewed concerning their conceptions of children's areas of personal control. Mothers granted children choices regarding recreational activities, clothes, and friends to foster autonomy and competence, but they set limits around daily routines, recreational activities, and interpersonal confrontation based on moral, conventional, and prudential concerns. Mothers believed in reaffirming children's personal boundaries when children failed to follow through with their initial decisions. Mothers experienced conflict with children around daily routines and recreational activities and used various resolution strategies. Mothers perceived child resistance as egocentric whereas fewer considered it as establishing personal boundaries. Some age and gender differences were observed. Results supported the heterogeneity of social judgments and practices of individuals within cultures.