This study investigated the effects of four factors (threat, surveillance, sex of child and time) on obedience of children to adult requests. An adult told the subjects (48 4-year-old boys and girls) to carry marbles from one box to another. The adult either made no threat or threatened the child for possible disobedience, and either stayed in the room or left the room during the session. Four measures of obedience were recorded for five consecutive 2-minute periods. Results showed in general that: (1) the children were very obedient; (2) threat increased obedience in girls, but not in boys; (3) surveillance increased the amount of time the children worked at the task; (4) obedience decreased with the passage of time; and (5) 94% of the children indicated that the experiment was fun, but 33% indicated that they would not like to do it again. These findings are compared with previous research findings on obedience, resistance to temptation and social reinforcement. (Author/MS)