Four-, 5-, and 7-year-olds (N = 60) listened to vignettes featuring characters that wanted to do actions that conflicted with parental rules. Desires included behaviors associated with the personal domain: friend, activity, and clothing choice. Scenarios involving moral rules served as a comparison. Children predicted and explained characters'…

Examined relationship of maternal control and sex differences in children taking responsibility for failure and possessing strong standards. Found that, in using control, mothers were more likely to grant autonomy to boys than to girls. This socialization pattern partially mediated girls' tendency to take greater responsibility for failure than…

Conceptions of parental authority and ratings of adolescent-parent conflict were assessed in 6th-, 8th-, and 10th-graders and their parents. Participants judged the legitimacy of parental authority and rated the frequency and intensity of conflict regarding 24 hypothetical issues. Adolescents and parents agreed that parents should retain authority…

This study explored judgments and reasoning of Chinese 13- to 18-year-olds regarding making decisions involving children in peer, family, and school contexts. Findings indicated that judgments and reasoning about decision-making varied by social context and by the decision under consideration. Evaluations of procedures became more differentiated…