Children's Moral Reasoning Regarding Physical and Relational Aggression

Elementary school children's moral reasoning concerning physical and relational aggression was explored. Fourth and fifth graders rated physical aggression as more wrong and harmful than relational aggression but tended to adopt a moral orientation about both forms of aggression. Gender differences in moral judgments of aggression were observed, with girls rating physical and relational aggression as more wrong and relational aggression as more harmful than boys. In addition, girls were more likely to adopt a moral orientation when judging physical and relational aggression and girls more often judged relational aggression than physical aggression from the moral domain. Finally, moral reasoning about aggression was associated with physically and relationally aggressive behavior. Considered together, the results indicate that children tend to adopt a moral orientation about aggression, but that they nonetheless differentiate between physical and relational aggression in their moral judgments.     

Early and Middle Adolescents' Reasoning About Moral and Personal Concerns in Opposite‐sex Interactions

This study examined how adolescents coordinate personal and moral concerns in reasoning about opposite‐sex interactions. Sixty‐four early and middle adolescents (Ms = 12.74, 16.05 years) were individually interviewed about two hypothetical situations involving opposite‐sex interactions (commenting on appearance, initiating a date), presented in four conditions that varied the salience of personal vs. moral concerns. Overall, participants viewed opposite‐sex interactions as harmless and acceptable in personal conditions, but as moral concerns became more salient, they were viewed more negatively, as less contingent on the target's response, and as entailing humiliation, coercion, and victimization. Age differences occurred primarily in reasoning about conditions entailing mixed‐personal and moral concerns. Implications for adolescents' understanding of harassment and victimization are discussed.     

Varieties of Childhood Bullying: Values, Emotion Processes, and Social Competence

Understanding the nature of bullies and bullying is of considerable theoretical and practical importance. We offer a commentary on a recent debate on this topic between Sutton, Smith, and Swettenham (1999a, 1999b) and Crick and Dodge (1999). In this commentary, we first summarize the main points of the debate, including alternative views of bullies as social inadequates versus Machiavellian schemers. Then we clarify some unresolved issues concerning the nature and limits of social competence and the roles of values in both social competence and in bullying. Finally, it is argued that variations in children's emotion processes, such as emotionality and emotion regulation, also may underlie some of the individual differences that have been found in empathy, social information processing, and in reactive ('hot-headed') and proactive ('cold-blooded') aggressive and bullying patterns.     

Bullying and Victimization Among School-age Children: Stability and Links to Proactive and Reactive Aggression

The main aim of the study relates to the links between bullying and victimization on the one hand and reactive and proactive aggression on the other. In addition, we also investigated stability and incidence of bullying and victimization. At age 7, 236 children were rated on bullying and victimization using peer reports. At age 8, 242 children were rated again. Two hundred and fifteen children (114 girls and 101 boys) were present at both time points. Reactive and proactive aggression was assessed by teachers. The results showed that bullies and bully/victims were both reactively and proactively aggressive, while victims were only reactively aggressive. A moderate degree of stability of bullying and victimization was found, with bullying being more stable than victimization. Boys were more often bullies than girls and more stable than girls in victimization. Stable victims and stable bully/victims were more reactively aggressive than their unstable counterparts. The relevance of the outcomes to preventing future maladjustment and suggestions for further research are discussed.     

Developmental Trajectories of Sympathy,Moral Emotion Attributions,and Moral Reasoning: The Role of Parental Support

We examined the role of parental support to children's sympathy, moral emotion attribution, and moral reasoning trajectories in a three‐wave longitudinal study of Swiss children at 6 years of age (N = 175; Time 1), 7 years of age (Time 2), and 9 years of age (Time 3). Sympathy was assessed with self‐report measures. Moral emotion attributions and moral reasoning were measured with children's responses to hypothetical moral transgressions. Parental support was assessed at all assessment points with primary caregiver and child reports. Three trajectory classes of sympathy were identified: high‐stable, average‐increasing, and low‐stable. Moral emotion attributions exhibited high‐stable, increasing, and decreasing trajectories. Moral reasoning displayed high‐stable, increasing, and low‐stable trajectories. Children who were in the high‐stable sympathy group had higher self‐reported support than children in the increasing and low‐stable trajectory groups. Children who were in the high‐stable moral emotion attribution group or the high‐stable moral reasoning group had higher primary caregiver‐reported support than children in the corresponding increasing trajectory groups. Furthermore, children who were members of the high‐stable group in all three moral development variables (i.e., sympathy, moral emotion attribution, and moral reasoning) displayed higher levels of self‐reported parental support than children who were not.     

Moral Reasoning in Violent Contexts: Displaced and Non-displaced Colombian Children's Evaluations of Moral Transgressions, Retaliation, and Reconciliation

In order to assess the effects of displacement and exposure to violence on children's moral reasoning, Colombian children exposed to minimal violence (non-displaced or low risk; N  =  99) and to extreme violence (displaced or high risk; N  =  94), evenly divided by gender at 6, 9, and 12 years of age, were interviewed regarding their evaluation of peer-oriented moral transgressions (hitting and not sharing toys). The vast majority of children evaluated moral transgressions as wrong. Group and age differences were revealed, however, regarding provocation and retaliation. Children who were exposed to violence, in contrast to those with minimum exposure, judged it more legitimate to inflict harm or deny resources when provoked and judged it more reasonable to retaliate for reasons of retribution. Surprisingly, and somewhat hopefully, all children viewed reconciliation as feasible. The results are informative regarding theories of morality, culture, and the effects of violence on children's social development.     

Ethics Instruction Increases Graduate Students' Responsible Conduct of Research Knowledge but not Moral Reasoning

The purpose of this study was to assess the short-term effectiveness of ethics courses in enhancing responsible conduct of research (RCR) knowledge and moral judgment among graduate students in health-related disciplines. Forty-eight graduate students completed a questionnaire about research experience, knowledge and judgments about appropriate research practices, and a standardized test of moral judgment at the beginning and end of a semester-long ethics course. Knowledge about RCR but not moral judgment increased significantly in some areas. The results are discussed in terms of implications for RCR instruction and of future research designed to improve RCR instruction.     

Mainland Chinese Adolescents' Judgments and Reasoning about Self-determination and Nurturance Rights

Younger (13 years) and older (17 years) adolescents (N  =  160) from urban and rural China responded to written scenarios in which children's rights to self-determination and nurturance conflicted with the desires of authorities. They also evaluated scenarios in which children's desire to exercise self-determination was in conflict with their own welfare interests (nurturance). Older participants and those from urban settings were more likely than younger participants and those from rural settings to endorse self-determination, both when in conflict with authority and nurturance. When supporting self-determination, participants appealed to individual rights, autonomy, and personal choice in their justifications. The findings indicate that concepts of diverse types of rights are maintained by adolescents from both modern and traditional settings in China.     

From Narcissistic Exploitativeness to Bullying Behavior: The Mediating Role of Approval‐of‐aggression Beliefs

This study examined the role of approval‐of‐aggression beliefs in the relationship between narcissistic exploitativeness and bullying behavior in an Asian sample (N = 809) comprising elementary children and middle school adolescents. Narcissistic exploitativeness was significantly and positively associated with both bullying behavior and approval‐of‐aggression beliefs, and approval‐of‐aggression beliefs was significantly and positively associated with bullying behavior. Additionally, findings indicated that approval‐of‐aggression beliefs was a statistically significant mediator and 53 percent of the total effect of narcissistic exploitativeness on bullying behavior was mediated by approval‐of‐aggression beliefs. Approval‐of‐aggression beliefs did not moderate the association between narcissistic exploitativeness and bullying behavior. There are important theoretical implications as well as implications for prevention and intervention efforts targeting aggressive, bullying behavior among children and adolescents.     

道德信仰：道德建设的本质与方法

信仰是道德的基本特性。把道德提升到信仰高度来建设,使之具有相对独立的信仰价值,有利于扩大群众基础,增进社会的稳定与和谐,有利于巩固我们党的执政地位,并与社会的政治信仰形成遥相呼应的互动格局。道德信仰包含了对道德的信仰与对善的终极追求两方面内容。解决信仰什么和为什么信仰的问题,可使道德成为一种终极的价值追求。道德信仰的养成需要全社会的关注,既需要从道德体系上完善道德信仰理论,又需要政府政策性的公共引导,同时还需要创设仪式化的社会生活氛围使之加以巩固与强化。     

Are the Competent the Morally Good? Perspective Taking and Moral Motivation of Children Involved in Bullying

The present study tested the hypothesis of the cognitively competent but morally insensitive bully. On the basis of teacher and peer ratings, 212 young elementary school children were selected and categorized as bullies, bully–victims, victims, and prosocial children. Children's perspective-taking skills were assessed using theory-of-mind tasks, and moral motivation was assessed with a task about moral emotion attributions after moral rule transgressions. Analyses at the group level revealed that only bully–victims, but not bullies, were characterized by a deficit in perspective taking, while both aggressive groups showed a deficit in moral motivation. Analyses at the individual level, however, revealed that bullies were a more heterogeneous group, including children with an asymmetry between perspective taking and moral motivation, as well as children scoring consistently low or high on both measures. The findings highlight the importance of distinguishing between (1) strategic social–cognitive and moral competencies and (2) different subgroups of bullies.     

Knowledge and Reasoning in Social Work: Educating for Humane Judgement

Much has been made of the uncertainties and contingencies ofpractice, and of the need for social workers to make more explicituse of formal knowledge in order to reduce this uncertainty.However, we argue that this focus on making certainty out ofuncertainty glosses over the ways in which both knowledge andpractice often propel practitioners towards early and certainjudgements when a position of ‘respectful uncertainty’might be more appropriate. Facilitating learning that will helpsocial workers to deal with uncertainty raises challenges forsocial work educators. If they are to equip social workers withthe skills to exercise ‘wise judgement under conditionsof uncertainty’, they will need to recognize the waysin which both theory and popular knowledge are invoked to makeunequivocal knowledge in case formulation. In this paper, wesuggest ways in which students can be helped to remain in uncertaintyand interrogate their knowledge and case reasoning.     

Development of Reasoning and the Tension between Scientific and Conversational Inference

We report two studies designed to examine the role of conversational understanding in young children's scientific reasoning. The results indicate that performance can be influenced by the degree of specificity in questioning. Under nonspecific questioning, accurate reasoning was associated with both vocabulary comprehension and pragmatic ability whereas under specific questioning it was associated only with vocabulary comprehension. Findings are discussed in terms of the conversational knowledge that is required for success on measures of scientific reasoning.     

Relations between close friendships and adolescent aggression: Structural and behavioral friendship features

Friendships have the potential to perpetuate or mitigate youth's aggressive behavior. We investigated concurrent and longitudinal effects of friendships on aggression by examining both structural (size and interconnectedness of the local friendship network) and behavioral (friends' aggression) friendship features. Participants were 868 sixth to eighth grade middle‐school students (M = 12.10 years; 49.9% girls; 44% Latina/o) who completed questionnaires at two time points. Participants nominated their friends; reciprocal friendship nominations were used to calculate structural friendship group features (size and interconnectedness). Peer nominations were also used to measure youth's and their friends' aggression. Having more reciprocal friends was associated with more aggression concurrently (particularly for youth whose friends were highly aggressive), and having an interconnected friendship group was associated with decreased aggression over time. Given that findings were different for group size and interconnectedness, we discuss the unique importance of each of these structural friendship features. Practical implications regarding the potential to decrease aggressive behavior based on specific friendship features are also discussed.     

The Relationship between Bullying Roles and Children's Everyday Dyadic Interactions

This study investigated the behaviour and communication of seven‐ to eight‐year‐old children during a dyadic computer task. The children participating were identified by peers as: (1) initiators of bullying (‘bullies’); (2) defenders of those victimised (‘defenders’); and (3) those who generally do not take on a consistent role in relation to bullying (‘non‐role’ children). Children were videotaped during the task and the interaction was coded, 34 dyads participated. Defenders used significantly higher levels of supportive communication such as explanation and guidance than bullies. The task performance of dyads consisting of defenders with non‐role children was significantly superior to that of dyads comprising bullies plus non‐role children. The behaviour of the non‐role children was influenced according to whether they were working with a bully, a defender or another non‐role child. The study suggests that the roles that children adopt in relation to bullying influence their behaviour in other, non‐bullying contexts.     

Observed and parent‐reported conscience in childhood: Relations with bullying involvement in early primary school

This exploratory study aimed to examine which components of early childhood conscience predicted bullying involvement around school entry. In the population‐based Generation R Study, teacher reports of bullying involvement and parent reports of conscience were available for 3,244 children (M age = 6.7 years). Higher levels of overall conscience predicted lower bullying perpetration scores, independently of intelligence quotient, temperamental traits and sociodemographic characteristics. Particularly, the subscales guilt, confession, and internalized conduct, and to a lesser extent empathy, predicted bullying perpetration. Conscience was not related to victimization. Similar results were found using observations during so‐called ‘cheating games’ (subsample N = 450 children). Findings suggest that improving children's understanding of moral standards and norms may be a potential target for bullying intervention programs in early primary school.     

Bullying Involvement and Empathy: Child and Target Characteristics

This study investigated how the bullying involvement of a child and a target peer are related to empathy. The role of gender was also considered. We hypothesized that empathy primarily varies depending on the bullying role of the target peer. Participants were 264 7–12‐year‐old children (M_age = 10.02, SD = 1.00; 50% girls) from 33 classrooms who had been selected based on their bullying involvement (bully, victim, bully/victim, noninvolved) in the classroom. Participants completed a cognitive and affective empathy measure for each selected target classmate. We found no differences in cognitive and affective empathy for all targets combined based on children's own bullying involvement. However, when incorporating the targets’ bullying involvement, bullies, victims, and bully/victims showed less empathy for each other than for noninvolved peers. Noninvolved children did not differentiate between bullies, victims and bully/victims. Girls reported more cognitive and affective empathy for girls than boys, whereas boys did not differentiate between girls and boys. The results indicated that children's empathy for peers depends primarily on the characteristics of the peer, such as the peer's bullying role and gender.     

Unique and Interactive Effects of Empathy and Social Status on Involvement in Bullying

This study investigated the relationships between affective and cognitive empathy, social preference and perceived popularity, and involvement in bullying situations by bullying others or defending the victimized children. The participants were 266 primary and 195 secondary school students. Affective and cognitive empathy, as well as the status variables, had some significant main effects on involvement in bullying. In addition, several interaction effects emerged. For instance, the positive association between affective empathy and defending behavior was stronger among boys who had a high status (i.e., were highly preferred) in the group. The results highlight the importance of studying child-by-environment models, which take into account both child characteristics and interpersonal variables in predicting social adjustment.     

Adolescent and Adult Reasoning about Gender and Fairness in Traditional Practices in Benin, West Africa

This study examined reasoning about fairness in gender-related traditional practices in Benin, West Africa. Fifty adolescents ( M   =  15.7 years) and 46 adults ( M   =  33.4 years) were interviewed about traditional practices involving gender hierarchy. Results indicate that the majority attributed decision-making authority to a traditional authority for conventional reasons. However, the majority also judged the practices as unfair, giving moral reasons. In judgments of how to respond to unfair practices, those who advocated accepting the practices gave conventional reasons and not moral reasons. Males took the gender of the protagonist into account more than did females, and males saw traditional male authority as less alterable. No age differences were found, indicating that adults were not more enculturated than adolescents.