Few studies on the development of forgiveness involved young children and adolescents, and very few involved samples from non-western countries. This study focused on the development of willingness to forgive a particular transgression in participants aged 4 to 12 years and from two different cultures: a South African culture (Mozambique) and a…

We examined Canadian host-society children's prosociality (i.e., emotions and behaviors that reflect care for the welfare of others) toward refugee newcomer peers and the role of parental socialization (i.e., frequency of parent-child conversations about refugee newcomers) in children's refugee-specific prosociality. The sample included 168…

Amid protracted conflict, children are raised in divided contexts that shape the development of their intergroup attitudes and behaviors. Social identity development theory (SIDT) suggests that in-group preference may contribute to more negative out-group attitudes and behaviors in middle childhood. In such contexts, in-group favoritism may shape…

The current study aimed to investigate the cultural differences in the developmental origins of children's intent-based moral judgment and moral behavior in the context of indirect reciprocity. To this end, we compared how German and Chinese children interpret and react to antisocial and prosocial interactions between puppets. An actor puppet…

This study examined whether children understand that people selectively conceal or express emotion depending upon the context. We prepared two contexts for a verbal display task for 70 first-graders, 80 third-graders, 64 fifth-graders, and 71 adults. In both contexts, protagonists had negative feelings because of the behavior of the other…

Sharing is an important indicator of internalised prosocial values. We examined predictors of sharing of 302 preschoolers with their younger siblings in a one-year longitudinal study. Sharing was observed during different home visits, once with father and once with mother. We examined the following predictors: both children's externalising…

Using social network analysis, we investigated the characteristics of social networks composed of positive relationships (positive network: PN) and negative relationships (negative network: NN) in classrooms of Japanese 3- and 4-year-olds. Analysis of "density" showed that PNs were denser than NNs among 4-year-olds but that this was not…

In this study we investigated whether mothers' typical expressive style and specific emotional responses to children's behaviors are linked to children's prosocial and competence self-ratings. Eight- to 12-year-old children and their mothers rated how mothers had felt when children behaved prosocially and antisocially, achieved and failed to…

This study examines the role of immediate social companions in the prosocial behaviors of children from two cultural communities from the USA and the Philippines. Materials for this study comprised behavioral observations drawn from the Six Cultures Study--with 612 five-minute observations of 23 children (12 girls, 11 boys) from Orchard Town, MA…

Examines the relationship between the presence and/or absence of perceived chronic deprivation of material and/or nonmaterial rewards and how this relationship affects altruistic behavior. Subjects were 108 seventh- and eighth-grade boys and girls. (MP)

Observed the social communication and task relevant behaviors of 80 kindergarten and first-grade children, each of whom was assigned to do a task with either a friend or a nonfriend. Results showed that friends exhibited less sharing and communicative behaviors and more task relevant behaviors. An explanatory model is suggested to account for…

Age-dependent differences in the relationship between physical attractiveness and the social perceptions of acquainted classmates were investigated in children (n=160) 3-10 years of age. (Author/MP)

In order to facilitate the comprehension of social structure in preschool children, our research has two foci: first, to define controlling behaviours (nonaggressive group organisation) and to determine their organisational principles, and second, to analyse the relation of the controlling behaviours with aggressive behaviours. Through direct…