Children's Acquisition of Appropriate Norms for Friendships and Acquaintances

Abstract

Research with adults demonstrates the existence of distinct norms governing the intentional giving and receiving of benefits within the context of different types of relationships. This study focuses on the development of children's adherence to these norms. We examined first and third grade children's allocation of jointly earned rewards after they had worked on a task with either an acquaintance or a friend. In both grades, more children working with friends than with an acquaintance divided the reward equally. In both grades acquaintances tended to use an equity norm more often than did friends. This effect was not significant among first graders but was significant among third graders. Moreover, third grade pairs of friends were significantly more likely than first grade pairs of friends to divide rewards equally. These results provide evidence of children's increasing use of communal norms in their friendships.

To be fair, generous, or selfish: The effect of relationship on Chinese children’s distributive allocation and procedural application

“…After earning rewards individually, participants were indeed more generous than fair or selfish toward friends, preferring to give the extra token to the friend. This result is similar to findings in previous studies, in which 8‐ to 9‐year‐olds (Pataki et al, ) and 11‐ to 12‐ year‐olds (Frederickson & Simmonds, ) treated friends generously, yet kept track of acquaintances’ work input to be fair. This result corresponds to the reciprocal nature and closeness of friendship on generous distributing—a norm which is particularly strong in Chinese Confucian culture, where people are encouraged to grant greater benefits to others than they received (Zhang & Zhang, ).…”

“…However, children in that study distributed rewards equally with friends, regardless of the friends’ contribution (Frederickson & Simmonds, ). In this study, as in others, researchers used the amount of the resource distributed to recipients as a measure of the extent of children’s partiality (i.e., a continuous measure; Frederickson & Simmonds, ; Pataki, Shapiro, & Clark, ). In the current study, we measure children’s fairness based on their decision about how to distribute a single self‐earned token.…”

Special Needs, Relationship Type and Distributive Justice Norms in Early and Later Years of Middle Childhood

“…Whereas the children in these experimental situations were strangers, a further factor that has since emerged as influential is the nature of the relationship between the children involved (McGillicuddy‐De Lisi et al., 1994; Pataki, Shapiro, & Clark, 1994). McGillicuddy‐De Lisi et al.…”

“…While McGillicuddy‐De Lisi et al. (1994) used hypothetical situations with children, Pataki et al. (1994) involved real classmates in investigating the norms used by six to seven‐year‐old and eight to nine‐year‐old children in dividing rewards jointly earned from work on a task with friends or acquaintances.…”

COMMENTARIES ON "Selective Investment Theory: Recasting the Functional Significance of Close Relationships"

“…Several findings are particularly relevant to caring for a seriously ill or disabled elder. That is, by age 8 or 9, close friends are more inclined than classmate acquaintances to equally divide jointly earned rewards rather than carefully tracking each other's inputs and insisting on equitable allocations (Pataki, Shapiro, & Clark, 1994). Moreover, people in communal relationships experience elevated affect after having helped their partners (Williamson & Clark, 1989a, 1992 and analogous declines in affect should they fail to help (Williamson, Clark, Pegalis, & Behan, 1996).…”