Research Findings: Social constructivist theories have proposed that caregivers' perceptions of children as morally responsible agents are an important factor in children's moral development. However, there is substantial variance in caregivers' ascriptions of moral agency to young children. The present study examined caregiver social conformity…

Research Findings: Children's capacities for complex socio-moral reasoning carries across domains; similarly, children's aggressive behaviors changes as a function of context. However, with a few exceptions, little research has considered children's socio-moral reasoning and aggressive subtypes in concert. The goals of the current study were to…

Research Findings: Research with older children and adults reliably demonstrates that individuals raised in poverty tend to evaluate concerns related to moral concerns (i.e., related to harm, welfare, and justice) differently than do wealthier individuals. However, little work has examined these patterns in young children. Children (N=214, Mage =…

This study investigated the effect of moral stories on children's honesty during a temptation resistance paradigm in a large sample of 3 to 6-year-olds (N = 296). Both children and their parents were also asked to anticipate if a child vignette protagonist would confess to a minor misdeed and also to predict the consequences of this potential…

Research Findings: The Scottish government is in the process of transforming their early childhood learning and care landscape by doubling the number of free hours of childcare for families and by requiring that all children in care spend a significant portion of each day outdoors. Thus, the government is promoting outdoor play programs. We…