The circle of life: A cross‐cultural comparison of children's attribution of life‐cycle traits

Burdett, Emily; Barrett, Justin L.

doi:10.1111/bjdp.12131

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Our results failed to show that children discriminated between God and an invisible agent. This is inconsistent with previous evidence noting that children distinguished an imaginary companion from God (Burdett & Barrett, ; Wigger et al, ). One possible reason for the different result is that Wigger et al () only assessed children with an imaginary companion whereas our participants may include children with and without imaginary companions (although we did not assess children's imaginary companions).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Mind perception of God in Japanese children

et al. 2018

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There is a theoretical debate regarding whether children represent God with reference to a human. Most previous studies have assessed this issue focusing on knowledge/omniscience in western children. This study used a theoretical framework characterising mental capacities in terms of motivational/emotional (experience) and cognitive (agency) mental capacities and tested whether Japanese children discriminated between God, a human, a baby and an invisible agent according to these capacities. Three- to 6-year-old children were asked about the experience and agency of the agents. The results revealed that children discriminated God from a human in terms of mental capacities including experience and agency in 3-year-old children. On the other hand, 4- to 6-year-old children, but not 3-year-old children, discriminated a human from a baby and an invisible person. The results suggest that the Japanese children's representations of God differed from their representation of a human during preschool years.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Mind perception of God in Japanese children

et al. 2018

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“…Christian children (both Protestant and Catholic) explicitly learn about Jesus, who is God in human form. This representation of God as human influences the extent to which children associate life-cycle traits with God (Burdett & Barrett, 2016). In contrast, children raised in Muslim homes that ban anthropomorphic depictions of God are much less anthropomorphic in their conceptions of God than their Protestant, Catholic, or Non-Affiliated counterparts .…”

Section: Group-level Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of religious context in children's differentiation between God's mind and human minds

Richert

Saide

Lesage

et al. 2016

British J of Dev Psycho

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The current study examined the cultural factors (i.e., religious background, religious participation, parents' views of prayer, and parents' concepts of God) that contribute to children's differentiation between the capabilities of human minds and God's mind. Protestant Christian, Roman Catholic, Muslim, and Religiously Non‐Affiliated parents and their preschool‐aged children were interviewed (N = 272). Children of Muslim parents differentiated the most between God's mind and human minds (i.e., human minds are fallible but God's is not), and children who had greater differentiation between God's and humans' minds had parents who had the least anthropomorphic conceptions of God. Additionally, there was a unique effect of being raised in a Religiously Non‐Affiliated home on the degree of children's differentiation between God's and human minds after religious context factors had been accounted for; in other words, children of Religious Non‐Affiliates differentiated between humans and God the least and their differentiation was unrelated to religious context factors. These findings delineate the ways in which religious context differences influence concepts of God from the earliest formation. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Children's concept of God develops during the preschool years. The degree of anthropomorphism in children's concept of God varies. What does this study add? Muslim children have a strong differentiation between what God's mind and human minds can do. Religiously Non‐Affiliated children have almost no differentiation between God's and human minds. Parent anthropomorphism explains variance in children's God concepts, both within and across religious groups.

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“…By the age of 5, children generally incorporate the understanding that God is omniscient into their concept of God (see Heiphetz et al 2016). In addition, around the age of 5, children in Spain, Israel, and the UK acknowledged that God is not constrained by biological, life-cycle processes, such as birth and death (Burdett and Barrett 2016;Giménez-Dasí et al 2005). In another example with 3-to 7-year-old children from varying religious traditions in the US, Muslim children were less likely to associate embodied biological (e.g., needs to eat food), physical (e.g., becomes wet in the rain), and psychological (e.g., forgetting) traits to God than Protestant, Catholic, and Non-Affiliated children (Richert et al 2016).…”

Section: Religious Diversity In Early Concepts Of Godmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does God Comfort You When You Are Sad? Religious Diversity in Children’s Attribution of Positive and Negative Traits to God

Lee,

Marin,

Sun

et al. 2023

Religions

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Children actively construct their understanding of God in early childhood, an understanding that incorporates affect-laden mental representations often referred to as God images. To explore religious variations in children’s association of positive and negative traits to God, 254 preschool-aged children from Protestant Christian, Catholic, Muslim, and Non-Affiliated religious backgrounds indicated their certainty that God scares them, punishes them, is angry at them, loves them, comforts them, and helps people. Parents indicated the frequency of children’s religious engagement. Older children were more certain than younger children that God did not scare or punish them and that God loved and comforted them, and helped people. Moreover, religious affiliation differences emerged in children’s attribution of both positively and negatively valenced properties to God, and more frequent religious engagement was related to a higher degree of certainty that God loves, comforts, helps, and becomes angry, but was unrelated to the certainty that God scares or punishes. The findings suggest that religious engagement plays an important role in children’s developing God image.

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The circle of life: A cross‐cultural comparison of children's attribution of life‐cycle traits

Cited by 8 publications

References 65 publications

Mind perception of God in Japanese children

Mind perception of God in Japanese children

The role of religious context in children's differentiation between God's mind and human minds

Does God Comfort You When You Are Sad? Religious Diversity in Children’s Attribution of Positive and Negative Traits to God

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