ERIC Number: EJ1488484
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025-Nov
Pages: 16
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0009-3920
EISSN: EISSN-1467-8624
Available Date: 2025-08-21
Children's Evaluations and Expectations of Forgiveness Following Second- and Third-Party Interventions
Child Development, v96 n6 p2146-2161 2025
Following a transgression, forgiveness can restore power imbalances and repair damaged bonds, helping maintain important relationships. Yet, we know little about which kinds of responses to transgression best foster forgiveness. Across two studies, with 5- to 9-year-olds in the United States (N = 302; 159 female, 64.2% White, tested in 2022 and 2023), we explore children's evaluations of intervention strategies and their expectations of forgiveness by victims. Our key manipulations were intervention type (compensation, punishment, pardoning, or doing nothing) and intervener role (authority figure, peer, or victim responder; Study 2 only). Our findings show that children's expectations of forgiveness and evaluations depend on "who" intervenes and "how," shedding new light on the relationship between justice-oriented interventions and forgiveness in childhood.
Descriptors: Childrens Attitudes, Evaluative Thinking, Expectation, Prosocial Behavior, Altruism, Conflict Resolution, Intervention, Justice
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA; 2Department of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA; 3Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

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