"No one is Going to Recess": How Children Evaluate Collective Versus Targeted Punishment.

• In Event: Poster Session 14
  In Poster Session: PS 14 Topic - Moral Development

Abstract

Punishment is a common tool used to enforce norms and manage behavior. In the context of a classroom, when one student misbehaves, a teacher can decide to either punish everyone (collective punishment) or just the individual student (targeted punishment). Although both kinds of punishments are prevalent, little is known about how children evaluate these punishments when they are personally subjected to them, or how it affects relationships with teachers and peers. The current study examined these questions. A total of 72 children (n = 36 4-5-year-olds; n = 36 6-7-year-olds; 36 females) participated. The demographics were representative of the city’s community, with a predominantly Caucasian sample (75% Caucasian), and parents were highly educated (67% post-graduate).

All children participated in three conditions. In two conditions, an individual student committed a transgression and the teacher punished either the entire class (Collective condition) or only the transgressor child (Targeted condition). In the third, Baseline condition, all students committed a transgression and everyone received a punishment. In all cases, the “punishments” were real in that physical stickers were taken away (including from the participant in the collective punishment case). Children were asked to evaluate the fairness of each punishment, rate the transgressor compared to a neutral peer and distribute resources between them, and rate the teacher compared to a neutral adult and distribute resources between them.

Results revealed that children’s assessments of the kind of punishment changed across development such that the older children viewed collective punishment as less fair than targeted punishment (F(2, 136) = 10.11, p < .001, η2 = .13), whereas the younger children evaluated both as similarly fair (p = .12; see Figure 1). Children at both ages evaluated punishment in the Targeted and Baseline conditions as similarly fair (both p-values > .12). Moreover, type of punishment influenced peer relations, such that children at both ages rated more positively (F(2, 132) = 17.23, p < .001, η2 = .21; see Figure 2) and distributed more resources to (F(2, 134) = 20.01, p < .001, η2 = .23) the transgressor in the Baseline condition (one child chosen from the class) compared to the transgressor in the Collective and Targeted conditions. Similarly, the type of punishment influenced both younger and older children’s assessment of the teacher, such that children distributed more resources to the teacher who administered a targeted compared to a collective punishment (F(2, 132) = 17.23, p < .001, η2 = .21).

Taken together, from quite early in development, children have begun to form preferences surrounding punishment behavior. By the early school years, they view targeted punishment as more fair than collective punishment, and even as early as the preschool years, their evaluations of the punisher and the other group members is impacted by the form of punishment. Overall, these findings have implications for classroom and behavior management strategies and provide insight into the impact of punishment on peer and teacher relationships.

Authors

• Sarah Ann Thomas, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Presenting Author

• Caroline Kelsey, Boston Children’s Hospital
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amrisha Vaish, University of Virginia - Charlottesville
  Non-Presenting Author