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Parents' and adolescents' (Mage = 15.7) acceptability ratings of four information management strategies and associations between these ratings and adjustment, relationship quality, and strategy use were examined in 174 middle‐class families over 1 year. Acceptance of information management was greater for adolescents than for parents and for personal than for prudential issues; acceptance decreased across telling only if asked, avoidance, omitting details, and lying. Strategy acceptance and use were associated for lying and avoiding the topic. Controlling for strategy use, teens' acceptance of lying, omitting details, and avoidance was associated with poorer parent–adolescent relationships and more problem behavior 1 year later; acceptance of lying was associated with increases in depressed mood. Associations in the opposite direction were rare.

The trouble with the ways morality is used and how they impede social equality and social justice / Elliot Turiel -- The moral judgment of the child reevaluated : heteronomy, early morality, and reasoning about social justice and inequalities / Charles C. Helwig -- America's Head Start program : an effort for social justice / Edward Zigler and Sally J. Styfco -- Affirmative action and ethnic minority university students : enlarging pipelines to support success / Joel Gills, Kristina Schmukler, Margarita Azmitia, and Faye Crosby -- The biology of social justice : linking social inequalities and health in adolescence / Elizabeth Goodman and Nancy E. Adler -- Leaving LGBT students behind : schools, sexuality, and rights / Stacey Horn -- The development of stereotype threat : consequences for educational and social equality / Catherine Good and Joshua Aronson -- Honour, truth, and justice / by Unni Wikan -- In defense of universal values / Martha Nussbaum

The role of parenting (adolescent‐perceived maternal solicitation of information and control), and child‐driven processes (adolescent disclosure and secrecy) in parental knowledge of adolescents' activities, norm‐breaking, and anxiety were examined among 498 poor Palestinian youth (M = 15 years) living in refugee camps in Jordan. With family relationships and demographic background controlled, greater adolescent disclosure and less secrecy about activities, but also more maternal control and solicitation, were associated with greater maternal knowledge. Greater dispositional secrecy was associated with greater norm‐breaking and generalized anxiety, but parental control and parental solicitation were not. In addition, both gender and maternal control moderated the effects of disclosure on norm‐breaking. Differences between these findings and research with Western samples are discussed.

AbstractUsing multilevel analyses, we examined the influence of domain (moral, conventional, and personal) and the familiarity of different authority figures (mother, teacher, person in charge, and stranger) in public, school, or home settings in 123 four to seven‐year‐old Chinese children (M = 5.6 years) in Hong Kong. Children affirmed authority more for moral and conventional than personal events, based primarily on punishment avoidance and conventional justifications. Children judged that they should obey mothers more than all other authorities and the person‐in charge in the associated setting and the teacher more than strangers. At school, teachers were seen as having more authority over moral and conventional events than mothers whereas at home, mothers had more authority than teachers over all issues. With age, children increasingly evaluated mothers' authority as generalizable across contexts for the moral event; reflecting the importance of familiarity, mothers were seen as having more authority to extend her regulation outside the home, including for personal events, than teachers' authority outside the school.

This paper discusses the emergence and development of morality as a distinct form of social knowledge in early childhood. Drawing on social domain theory, we define morality in terms of individuals' concerns regarding others' welfare, fair treatment, rights, and the equitable distribution of resources. Moral judgments are described as building on early predispositions but constructed through children's varied social experiences. We highlight some of the morally relevant interactions in the first few years of life that contribute to early moral development and then summarize evidence regarding young children's increasing ability to distinguish moral and nonmoral concepts in their judgments. Consistent with our constructivist emphasis, we also draw attention to sources of individual differences in early moral judgment development. We conclude with some suggestions for future research that build on the innovative methods and new findings reported here to further expand our understanding of early moral development.

This study examined the joint association between mothers' and adolescents' ratings of parental behavioral control and adolescents' and observers' ratings of mother – adolescent communication with adolescent problem behaviors in a sample of 86 middle‐class African American early adolescent boys and girls (age: M= 13.08 years, SD= 1.32) and their mothers. Consistent with hypotheses, greater adolescent‐rated parental behavioral control and better observer‐rated mother – adolescent communication were associated with lower levels of adolescent problem behavior, as examined using structural equation modeling. Furthermore, interrelationships between age and adolescent problem behavior were partially mediated by adolescents' reports of parental behavioral control and observers' ratings of positive mother – adolescent communication, which both decreased with adolescents' age. Although the sample was primarily middle class, higher socioeconomic status was associated with more positive mother – adolescent communication, as rated by observers. Problem behavior was greater among boys than girls, but the hypothesized indirect effect of gender on problem behavior through associations with parenting was not observed. The findings demonstrate the utility of conceptually distinguishing between parenting and parent – adolescent relationships, and suggest that both have unique influences on middle‐class African American adolescents' problem behavior.

AbstractWe examined 261 5‐, 7‐, and 10‐year‐olds' (147 in Hong Kong, 114 in the USA) evaluations of hypothetical scenarios where mothers sought to control personal domain events by prohibiting, persuading, or shaming the child. The scenarios also varied in their description of personal events as either essential or peripheral to the self. Compliance was endorsed least (and emotions attributed to actors were most positive) when mothers gently persuaded and endorsed most (with emotion attributions most negative) when mothers prohibited personal choices. Evaluations of compliance and associated emotions for shaming fell in‐between. When mothers were described as gently persuading, young children (and Chinese children) gave priority to personal choices more when acts were described as essential rather than peripheral to the self, based on personal reasons. When mothers were described as shaming, noncompliance increased with age, along with pragmatic justifications for choices, particularly when events were essentialized. Positive emotions in response to shaming also increased with age, but differentially for Chinese and American children.

Associations between observed mother–adolescent interactions during a conflict task and adolescents' information management strategies were examined in 108 primarily middle class, European‐American adolescents (M = 13.80 years, SD = 1.52) and their mothers. Teens who communicated more clearly disclosed more about personal and multifaceted activities, lied less about personal activities, and engaged in less avoidance regarding multifaceted and prudential activities. Mothers' clear communication was associated with less adolescent disclosure and more avoidance about personal and multifaceted activities. Teens with more receptive mothers omitted less prudential information but avoided discussing prudential issues more. Maternal warmth was not associated with information management. The results highlight the need to distinguish between parent and teen behaviors and between affective quality and specific communicative behaviors.

This study examined maltreated and nonmaltreated preschool children's judgments regarding hypothetical provoked and unprovoked moral transgressions. Maltreated children (17 physically abused and 19 neglected) and 19 matched nonmaltreated children rated the severity and deserved punishment and evaluated affective responses to six hypothetical moral transgressions which were depicted as both unprovoked and provoked by another child's actions. All children rated unprovoked transgressions as more serious and deserving of punishment and as eliciting more happiness and fear and less anger than transgressions that were depicted as provoked by another's actions. No gender or maltreatment status differences in ratings of transgression severity and deserved punishment were found; however, patterns of affective responses to hypothetical transgressions differed as a function of maltreatment subtype. Findings are discussed in terms of previous research on maltreatment and moral judgment development.