The Development of Korean Children’s and Adolescents’ Concepts of Social Convention

Abstract

Previous research in the United States has revealed that children’s and adolescents’ understandings of social convention go through a developmental trajectory that includes an early adolescent phase “negating” the importance of convention. This study examined whether this developmental pattern would generalize to children and adolescents from the more traditional East Asian culture of Korea. Specifically, among U.S. samples, children in middle childhood have an understanding of conventions based on a concrete understanding of social hierarchy; early adolescents “negate” their prior understandings and view conventions as “merely” the dictates of authority; and in middle adolescence, U.S. samples establish an affirmation of convention as constituent elements of a social system structured by shared norms. Our hypotheses were that Korean children would not exhibit the negation phase associated with early adolescence and might develop an understanding of the societal function of convention earlier than U.S. samples. To examine this, interviews were conducted using culturally appropriate situations with 64 Korean children and adolescents in three age groups of 10 to 11 years ( Mage = 10.1 years), 12 to 13 years ( Mage = 13.2 years), and 15 to 16 years ( Mage = 15.8 years). Findings revealed that, contrary to our expectations, Korean children go through the same developmental sequence of concepts about convention as observed with children in the United States. This implies that the developmental trajectories of understandings of the functions of social convention can be generalized to children in traditional East Asian cultural settings.

Continuities and Discontinuities in the Development of Moral Judgments

“…We, therefore, expected that features of situations such as what might be perceived as legitimate goals of the self or others, as well as characteristics of the individuals involved, would be taken into account in decisions. We examined judgments in such situational contexts because previous studies have shown that children and adolescents form judgments in parallel with moral judgments in the conventional [Geiger & Turiel, 1983;Midgette et al, 2016;Turiel, 1983a] and personal [Nucci, 2001] domains. This is to say that moral judgments are not applied in isolation from other considerations important to people.…”

“…Rather, thinking within each domain develops through constructions out of children's early social experiences and interactions [Nucci & Nucci, 1982;Nucci & Turiel, 1978;Turiel, 1983a]. We have proposed that the domains constitute different developmental pathways and identified age-related sequences in the conventional [Geiger & Turiel, 1983;Midgette, Noh, Lee, & Nucci, 2016;Turiel, 1983a] and personal [Nucci, 2001] domains. Yet, age-related changes within the moral domain, as distinct from other domains, have not been studied directly or systematically.…”

Children’s and Adolescents’ Moral Reasoning About the Fairness of Salary Allocation Based on Gender and Hierarchy

“…We expected developmental differences in children s evaluations of hierarchy-based salary differentials. Previous research based on social domain theory has emphasized a developmental trend where individuals in late adolescence (15-to 16-year-olds) fully develop a more sophisticated understanding of societal issues, compared to those in childhood (10-to 11-year-olds) or young adolescence (12to 13-year-olds) (Midgette et al, 2016;Nucci et al, 2017;Smetana et al, 2014). Thus, we expected that when children and adolescents made fairness judgments in regard to social systems, 15-to 16-year-olds would be more likely to judge that salary difference based on hierarchy as fair compared to 10-to 11-year-olds and 12-to 13-year-olds.…”

“…However, when it comes to the conventional domain, with age children are found to develop more complex understanding of social norms and their functions (Midgette, Noh, Lee, & Nucci, 2016;Turiel, 1983;2002). Given distinct developmental patterns within each domain, the aim of this study was to explore whether children's reasoning on salary inequality -an issue related to distributive justice -would undergo age-based changes distinctively for moral and societal domain.…”

“…Prior work based on social domain theoretical perspective has found that by the time individuals reach early-middle adolescence, individuals 109 Children's Moral Reasoning on Fair Salary Allocation are able to understand convention as essential for the running and ordering of larger society, such as a hierarchical system (Almas et al, 2010;Arsenio, 2015;Arsenio, Willems, Fasteau, & Cohn, 2014;Nucci, 2009;Turiel, 1983). For instance, a recent study by Midgette et al (2016) has revealed that Korean adolescents who are 15-to 16-year-olds are better able to understand the rationale behind social systems and conventions (e.g., calling respectful names like "uncle" to someone who is in the higher hierarchy, even if he is younger) compared to 10-to 11-year-olds and 12to 13-year-olds. However, what is not known is whether a similar developmental trend would be revealed when individuals make a fair allocation decision that is related to the issues of societal systems and conventions.…”