Poster #131 - When Mom is Wrong: Preschoolers Place Increasing Limits on Adult Authority with Age

• In Event: 3-053 - Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: PS 10 Section - Moral Development

Integrative Statement

Young children are often expected to unquestioningly obey orders from adults, but surprisingly little is known about how they themselves view these commands. Traditional stage theories (e.g., Piaget, 1965) postulate that preschool-aged children are guided by punishment avoidance and absolute deference to authority, lacking independent moral structure. More recent research shows that their authority concepts are more complex, varying across social cognitive domains (i.e., moral, social-conventional, or personal) and other factors (e.g., Yau, Smetana, & Metzger, 2009). However, very little research has explored children’s reactions to commands that contradict learned norms, such as harm avoidance or social rules. A few studies have given preliminary evidence that preschoolers reject certain immoral commands (e.g., Damon, 1979; Laupa, 1994), but these have extrapolated from single scenarios, without comparison between different command types. The current study expanded upon past research by testing preschoolers’ perceptions of commands across moral, conventional, and personal domains, as well as of commands that violate moral or conventional norms.
Children (N = 57) aged 4 and 5 were asked to listen to a counterbalanced set of vignettes in which fictional children were ordered by their mother to engage in various actions. They were then asked to answer questions tapping their perceptions of the authority’s legitimacy (e.g., “Is it alright or not alright for Johnny’s mother to tell him to hit his friend?”) and the child’s obligation to obey (e.g., “Should Johnny do it?”).
A 5 (scenario type) x 2 (age group) by 2 (question type) mixed measures ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of scenario type, F(3.14, 172.59) = 116.31, MSe = 1.13 p < .001, suggesting that children as young as 4 distinguish between typical and atypical commands, and reject commands that break established moral or conventional boundaries. Responses in the personal domain were mixed, indicating limited support for parental authority in matters of personal choice (see Figure 1). A significant age group by scenario type interaction, F(4, 220) = 3.044, MSe = .164, p = .028, also emerged. Support for authority in the personal domain and for authorities who command atypical behaviors declined between ages 4 and 5, whereas support for typical moral and typical conventional commands remained steady (see Figure 2). Results also showed a main effect of question type, F(1, 55) = 15.12, MSe = .17, p < .001, suggesting that children may endorse obedience to commands more often than they endorse legitimacy. However, a significant scenario type by question type interaction, F(3.53, 193.94) = 4.05, MSe = .17, p = .003, revealed that this effect was present only for typical moral commands (see Figure 1).
These findings suggest that young children consider commands that might cause harm or go against cultural norms illegitimate and nonbinding, even when they are issued by a parent. They also show that the ability to identify these “illegitimate” commands increases during the fifth year of life, as does the recognition of a personal domain that lies outside of parental control.

Authors

• Ava Alexander, Bowdoin College
  Presenting Author

• Sam Putnam, Bowdoin College
  Non-Presenting Author