Poster #131 - “There are no Band-Aids for emotions”: Understanding the development of emotional harm

• In Event: 1-115 - Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

Children’s understanding of harm has been long forefront to the study of moral development. However, some kinds of harm have garnered more focus than others. Namely, physical harm — harm done to one’s body — has received comparatively more attention in the literature than emotional harm — harm done to one’s emotions. Understanding the development of children’s thinking about emotional harm can contribute to an understanding of moral development, and also have practical impact by informing interventions aimed at children’s own experiences with emotional harm (e.g., bullying interventions).

In the current study, we tested children’s comparative assessments of the relative severity of emotional and physical harm, and how each type of harm related to the perpetrator’s intentions. We presented 240 5-10-year-old children with a scenario in which we asked them to contrast physical harm (one character getting tripped by another) and emotional harm (one character getting made fun of by another). Children were first asked whether the physical or emotional harm is worse and asked to explain why. Next, children saw two novel stories in which the perpetrator’s intention mismatched the outcome (e.g., a character intended emotional harm but accidentally caused physical harm, or vice versa). We again sought children’s assessments of which harm scenario was worse, and also their verbal explanations as to why. Across participants, we varied the gender of the victim and perpetrator resulting in four between-subject conditions.

We hypothesized that children’s appreciation of the severity emotional harm might increase with age, because emotional harm is experienced internally and therefore may be more difficult to conceptualize than physical harm. Additionally, we predicted that evaluations of harm might be particularly sensitive to the intentions involved, and potentially also to the identity (e.g., gender identity) of the victim and perpetrator.

Consistent with our predictions, we found that with age, a greater proportion of children chose emotional harm as more severe (β = -.019, p < .01). This was particularly the case when children evaluated actions involving two female actors (Girl-girl scenario: β = -.49, p < .05). Based on children’s choices and also on a detailed analysis of their verbal explanations, we observed that children’s assessments of emotional harm related to their thinking about the intentions of the perpetrator, whereas children’s considerations of physical harm relied more on perceptions of the outcome of the situation.

This research provides evidence that an appreciation of emotional harm increases with age, and may differ conceptually from children’s thinking about physical harm, reflecting a particular attention to intentions and to the identity of the actors involved. In ongoing work, we are further manipulating the presence of intention depicted to better understand how intentionality relates to a developing appreciation of emotional harm.

Authors

• Isobel Heck, Cornell University
  Presenting Author

• Jessica Bregant, Indiana University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katherine Kinzler, Cornell University
  Non-Presenting Author