Poster #129 - Attributions of Culpability: Mothers’ and Children’s Perspectives, and the Effects of Mother-Child Conversations

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

When children are harmed by others, they construct understandings of their own and others’ culpability by reflecting on the causes of their own and others’ actions within the event (Graham & Juvonen, 1998). Although parents have been shown to play a key role in helping children to make sense of their past experiences of conflict (Recchia & Wainryb, 2014), little is known about how discussions with parents may affect children’s attributions of blame. This study examined (a) how children and mothers attribute blame in situations when a child feels hurt by a peer’s actions, and (b) how children change their attributions of blame after conversing with their mothers about events.

The sample included 64 mother-child dyads (including groups of 7- and 11-year-olds). The procedure included three phases. First, the child was interviewed and nominated two events when they had been harmed by a peer, one where they felt they “had something to do with” the conflict and another where they did not (order counterbalanced). For each event, the child rated on a 4-point likert scale the degree to which they perceived (a) themselves and (b) their peer to be at fault. Second, the dyad discussed the nominated events. Third, the mother and child were interviewed separately; both participants rated the child’s and peer’s culpability for the events.

For both types of events, children initially rated themselves as less culpable than their peers (Table 1). However, consistent with the manipulation, children rated their peers as more culpable when they themselves had not contributed to the event, whereas they rated themselves as more culpable when they had contributed. Interestingly, children’s ratings of their own culpability decreased after conversing with their mothers, whereas their ratings of their peers did not change. Following the conversations, distinctions between the ratings of the child and the mothers were found to vary by age group, but only for events in which children described contributing to the conflict (Table 2). Specifically, the 7-year-olds’ ratings of peers’ culpability were higher than those of their mothers, whereas mothers’ ratings of their child’s culpability were higher than those of their children. Conversely, the 11-year olds rated themselves as more culpable than their mothers did, whereas children’s and mothers’ ratings of peers were similar.

These findings suggest that discussing events with mothers decreased children’s level of self-blame for peer injury. In addition, mothers’ and children’s ratings of culpability may especially diverge when children describe contributing to a conflict. Despite nominating events when they had something to do with the conflict, 7-year-olds struggled to acknowledge how their own actions contributed to the fight, even after discussing events with their mothers. In contrast, 11-year-olds judged themselves to be more culpable for their conflicts than did their mothers. This is consistent with broader age-related trends suggesting that pre-adolescents may prioritize their friends’ needs over their own, and that mothers play an important role in helping children of this age to balance their own and others’ needs (Scirocco, Recchia, Wainryb, & Pasupathi, in press).

Authors

• melissa commisso, concordia
  Presenting Author

• Holly Recchia, Concordia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Melanie Dirks, McGill University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Cecilia Wainryb, University of Utah
  Non-Presenting Author