ERIC Number: EJ1051124
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014-Apr
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
The Role of Moral Emotions in the Development of Children's Sharing Behavior
Ongley, Sophia F.; Malti, Tina
Developmental Psychology, v50 n4 p1148-1159 Apr 2014
This study investigated the role of moral emotions in the development of children's sharing behavior (N = 244 4-, 8-, and 12-year-old children). Children's sympathy was measured with both self- and primary caregiver-reports, and participants anticipated their negatively and positively valenced moral emotions (i.e., feeling guilty, sad, or bad; and feeling proud, happy, or good) following actions that either violated or upheld moral norms. Sharing was measured through children's allocation of resources in the dictator game. Children's self-reported sympathy emerged as a significant predictor of sharing in early childhood. For children with low levels of sympathy, sharing was also predicted by negatively valenced moral emotions following the failure to perform prosocial actions. In addition, results demonstrated an age-related increase in sharing for boys between ages 4 and 8 and a decrease in sharing for boys between ages 8 and 12. We discuss the findings in relation to the emergence of 2 compensatory emotional pathways to sharing, 1 via sympathy and 1 via negatively valenced moral emotions.
Descriptors: Role, Moral Values, Prosocial Behavior, Predictor Variables, Children, Psychological Patterns, Resource Allocation, Age Differences, Games, Behavior Standards, Emotional Response, Gender Differences, Multiple Regression Analysis, Correlation, Foreign Countries, Social Development, Child Development, Questionnaires, Caregiver Attitudes, Evaluation Methods
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A