FERGUSON, TAMARA J.; STEGGE, HEDY; and DAMHUIS, ILSE. Children's Understanding of Guilt and Shame. GHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1991, 62, 827-839. Gbildren's conceptions of tbe self-conscious emotions guilt versus sbame were investigated. In Study 1, 10-12-yeai-old cbildren answered questions about scenarios tbat sbouid elicit feelings of guilt and/or sbame (moral transgressions and social blunders). In Study 2, 7-9-and 10-12-year-old cbildren completed a sorting task to ascertain tbe features tbey associate witb guilt and sbame. Feelings of guilt were aroused by moral norm violations. Guilt feelings were also seen as involving an approacb-avoidance conflict witb respect to tbe victim, self-criticism, remorse, desire to make amends, and fear of punisbment. Feelings of sbame resulted from botb moral transgressions and social blunders. Younger cbildren associated sbame witb embarrassment, blusbing, ridicule, and escape. Older cbildren additionally cbaracterized sbame as feeling stupid, being incapable of doing tbings rigbt, and not being able to look at otbers.Requests for reprints or furtber details about tbe researcb sbouid be sent to tbe first autbor at tbe Department of Psycbology, Utab State University, Logan, Utab 84322-2810. We would like to tbank tbe two anonymous reviewers for tbeir tremendously belpful comments as well as Jan Hoeksma for bis advice on partitioning tbe cbi-square matrix involved in Study 2.

Chronic renal failure in young children is associated with impaired cognitive development, but recent studies present a more optimistic perspective. An important question is whether the earlier initiation of renal replacement therapy (RRT) might prevent the reported developmental retardation. The cognitive development of 31 patients (age < 5 years with a serum creatinine clearance of < 20% of normal) undergoing different treatment modalities was monitored by repeated measurements during a prospective 3-year study. Fifteen patients received conservative treatment and 16 patients were on dialysis treatment at the start of the project. We were able to evaluate the effect of the onset of RRT on 12 patients who were transferred from conservative treatment to dialysis. At the beginning of the study, the cognitive development of the total group was significantly delayed (mean developmental index = 78.5, SD = 19.5) compared with a normal population. Patients undergoing conservative treatment scored significantly higher (P < 0.01) than those on dialysis. The effect of starting dialysis treatment appeared to be positive, but only a significant short-term improvement was observed. Follow-up evaluation of 7 patients on conservative treatment and of 9 dialysis patients over a 2-year period did not show any significant change in a positive or negative direction. The present study revealed that pre-school dialysis patients are at risk with respect to their cognitive development. This is particularly true for the group with concomitant disorders. Less severe disease in the group on conservative treatment may be assumed to be a positive contributing factor to the more normal performance of these patients.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Children's conceptions of the self‐conscious emotions guilt versus shame were investigated. In Study 1, 10–12‐year‐old children answered questions about scenarios that should elicit feelings of guilt and/or shame (moral transgressions and social blunders). In Study 2, 7–9‐ and 10–12‐year‐old children completed a sorting task to ascertain the features they associate with guilt and shame. Feelings of guilt were aroused by moral norm violations. Guilt feelings were also seen as involving an approach‐avoidance conflict with respect to the victim, self‐criticism, remorse, desire to make amends, and fear of punishment. Feelings of shame resulted from both moral transgressions and social blunders. Younger children associated shame with embarrassment, blushing, ridicule, and escape. Older children additionally characterized shame as feeling stupid, being incapable of doing things right, and not being able to look at others.