Children’s Moral and Affective Judgments Regarding Provocation and Retaliation

Moral judgments, attributions of emotion, and their associations were examined in hypothetical, prototypical situations and situations of provocation and peer retaliation. Eighty-one school-age children, 46 kindergartners and first graders and 35 2nd–4th graders, judged prototypical and provoked moral transgressions (hitting and teasing). Children judged hypothetical moral transgressions to be more serious and more deserving of punishment, and they reasoned more about concerns with others’ welfare, for prototypical than for provoked transgressions and when retaliation involved hitting rather than teasing. Children’s moral condemnation of provocation increased with age. Across conditions, children attributed greater happiness to transgressors than to victims; “happy victimizer” responses decreased with age for prototypical but not for provoked transgressions. Moreover, retaliators were seen as both happier and angrier than their victims. Anger increased and sadness decreased with age, but children’s emotion attributions were not associated with their moral judgments about either prototypical or provoked transgressions

Beliefs about the permissibility of abortion and their relationship to decisions regarding abortion

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/43494/1/11111_2004_Article_BF00972499.pd

Adolescents, families, and social development : how teens construct their worlds/ Smetana

viii, p. 327; 27 c

Within-family dyadic patterns of parental monitoring and adolescent information management.

In line with increasing calls for within-family analyses of monitoring processes, this study examined profiles of (combined) adolescent information management strategies and parent knowledge-gathering strategies among 174 families with middle adolescents (Mage _ 15.7 years; 164 mother–teen and 112 father–teen dyads). Three mother–adolescent profiles (open, intrusive, indirect) and two father–adolescent profiles (reserved, covert) emerged, with voluntary disclosure and snooping particularly differentiating profiles and fathers reporting gaining more knowledge from others. Profile membership was associated with adjustment and relationship quality both concurrently and over one year, controlling for prior levels. For mother–teen dyads, open communicators reported less behavioral control over time, intrusive communicators reported more negative interactions concurrently and greater depression and less maternal knowledge over time, and indirect communicators reported more problem behavior over time. For father–teen dyads, covert communicators reported more problem behavior concurrently and more negative interactions over time. Profile membership in mother-teen and father-teen dyads was not significantly associated. Results confirm the importance of disclosure and the problematic nature of snooping, while highlighting diverse ways that monitoring processes play out within families

Beliefs about parents’ right to know: Domain differences and associations with change in concealment.

Parent and adolescent (M = 15.7 years) beliefs regarding parents’ right to know (RTK) about adolescents’ activities were examined in 174 middle-class U.S. families. Mean differences and associations with latent changes in teens’ concealment were assessed. RTK was greatest about risky prudential activities, least for personal activities for parents and romantic activities for teens, and higher for mothers’ ratings of girls’ than boys’ romantic behavior. Adolescents’ stronger RTK beliefs predicted lower concealment 6 months later and less increase in concealment over time, although less so for romantic issues. In contrast, mothers’ stronger RTK beliefs predicted more concealment over time. For personal issues, greater teen RTK beliefs slowed increases in concealment only when parents’ RTK beliefs were low

Acceptability of information management strategies: Adolescents’ and parents’ judgments and links with adjustment and relationships.

Parents’ and adolescents’ (M age = 15.7) acceptability ratings of four information management strategies and associations between these ratings and adjustment, relationship quality, and strategy use were examined in 174 middle-class families over 1 year. Acceptance of information management was greater for adolescents than for parents and for personal than for prudential issues; acceptance decreased across telling only if asked, avoidance, omitting details, and lying. Strategy acceptance and use were associated for lying and avoiding the topic. Controlling for strategy use, teens’ acceptance of lying, omitting details, and avoidance was associated with poorer parent–adolescent relationships and more problem behavior 1 year later; acceptance of lying was associated with increases in depressed mood. Associations in the opposite direction were rare

Parenting, adolescent-parent relationships, and the personal domain: Implications for identity development.

This chapter explores connections among parenting, children’s construction of the personal domain as defined within social domain theory, and adolescents’ identity development. It begins by describing the framework of social domain theory and its potential links with identity development. It highlights differences among social-cognitive domains (moral, conventional, and personal) in the ways they relate to identity processes and emphasizes the importance of the personal domain, which encompasses matters of personal choice and preference, for adolescent identity processes. Next, the authors focus on parents’ and children’s views of the personal domain and their interactions, drawing special attention to the way parents’ control of the personal domain potentially impacts adolescents’ adjustment and identity. The chapter concludes by focusing on ways social domain theory research, and specifically parenting and domain distinctions, can illuminate research on identity development

Situational and structural variation in youth perceptions of maternal guilt induction.

Parental induction of empathy-related guilt plays an important role in children’s moral development. However, guilt induction can also be psychologically controlling and detrimental for youth adjustment. This study provided a more nuanced view of parental guilt induction by examining how the nature of a child’s misdeed and the structure and content of the parental guilt inductive statement impact children’s perceptions of it. Using hypothetical vignettes, this study experimentally examined the impact of the type (domain) of child behavior, highlighted victim, and focus of parental criticism on 156 children’s and early and middle adolescents’ (age: Ms 8.82, 12.11, and 15.84 years) perceptions of maternal guilt induction. Attributions of guilt and shame increased most for younger children, when mothers focused on indirect harm to themselves about personal issues, and when mothers criticized their child as a person (shame only). Youth evaluated guilt induction least positively for personal issues and when mothers criticized the child’s personality while focusing on indirect harm to themselves. With age, youth were less accepting of maternal guilt induction and more likely to endorse negative and parent-centered intentions, especially for personal issues. Older youth also drew less distinction between guilt induction over multifaceted and personal issues. Guilt induction over moral issues was generally perceived most positively. Additional interactions also emerged. These findings suggest that the meaning and effects of guilt induction on children’s development may depend on the way in which it is enacted

What do mothers want to know about teens’ activities? Levels, trajectories, and correlates.

Middle class mothers (n = 169) of middle adolescents (M = 15.69 years old) in the U.S. rated how much they want to know and responded qualitatively about what they “always” and “never” want to know about adolescents\u27 risky prudential (e.g., drinking alcohol, using illegal drugs), personal (e.g., teens\u27 private conversations), and multifaceted (involving overlapping prudential and personal concerns) activities. Latent growth curve modeling over one year showed that mothers wanted to know most about prudential, less about multifaceted, and least about personal activities; wanting to know declined over time for each type of activity, but less for prudential than for other activities. With teen problem behavior controlled, psychologically controlling parenting, supportive and negative interactions with teens, knowledge of adolescents\u27 activities, and teens\u27 age were associated with individual differences in mothers\u27 initial ratings and trajectories of wanting to know, although results varied by domain and were moderated by teen gender