Judith G Smetana

• Ph.D.
• Professor (Full) at University of Rochester

Delve into the ideal resource for theory and research on parental monitoring and adolescents' disclosure and concealment from parents. This handbook presents ground-breaking research exploring how adolescents respond to parents' attempts to control and manage their activities and feelings. The chapters highlight how adolescents' responses are as im...

Although much research has shown that parental psychological control undermines adolescents’ routine disclosure to parents, past research has not examined whether the effects of psychological control on disclosure are domain-specific and mediated by the quality of adolescents’ interactions with mothers and fathers. The present one-year longitudinal...

Autonomy is a multifaceted construct that has been conceptualized, defined, and measured in different ways. In this article, we review different theoretical approaches to adolescent autonomy development and highlight the contributions of two currently prominent theoretical perspectives: Self-determination theory and social-cognitive domain theory....

Introduction: Whether adolescents' routine disclosure to parents is voluntary is assumed but rarely assessed. Researchers also have not examined whether disclosure and lying are premeditated, occurring before rather than after disclosure or lying, and whether adolescents use a single strategy consistently rather than applying multiple strategies wh...

Introduction Whether adolescents' routine disclosure to parents is voluntary is assumed but rarely assessed. Researchers also have not examined whether disclosure and lying are premeditated, occurring before rather than after disclosure or lying, and whether adolescents use a single strategy consistently rather than applying multiple strategies whe...

Helping others in need is universally encouraged and appreciated. However, the conceptualization of social obligation underlying helping may differ considerably in different cultures. In three studies, we explored variations in perceived social obligations both between and within different Western and Confucian (East Asian) societies using hypothet...

Numerous studies have shown that children judge some issues as personal and up to them to decide, yet they often comply with parental restrictions regarding these choices. The current study investigated children's judgments and justifications in response to stories where hypothetical mothers prohibited children's personal choices. Semi-structured i...

Adolescents’ routine disclosure and self (non)disclosure to parents have been distinguished conceptually, but rarely empirically. Using latent profile analyses (LPA), these two types of (non)disclosure were operationalized and examined in terms of the patterns of reasons middle adolescents endorsed for not disclosing personal activities and persona...

Understanding distinctions between morality and conventions is an important milestone in children's moral development. The current meta-analysis integrated decades of social domain theory research (Smetana, 2006; Turiel, 1983) on moral and conventional judgments from early to middle childhood. We examined 95 effect sizes from 18 studies (2,707 chil...

The current study examined the role of child temperament, parenting, and their interactions in 2- to 6-year-olds’ (n = 112; Mage = 3.82 years, SD = 1.01) moral and social-conventional understanding. Children's judgments regarding hypothetical moral and conventional transgressions were assessed in a semi-structured interview administered on an iPad....

Although Chinese parents are seen as employing guilt and shame induction to socialize children’s culturally appropriate behavior, research has focused primarily on Chinese parents’ use of these inductions and their links with child adjustment rather than on children’s evaluations of them. Furthermore, this research typically does not examine variat...

This volume brings together research on revenge across childhood and adolescence to explore how revenge is a part of normative development, but also arises from maladaptive social environments. The chapters demonstrate the ways in which revenge is intertwined with social, emotional, cognitive, and moral development as well as being informed by inte...

The present study examined early and middle adolescents’ and emerging adults’ emotions associated with salient experiences of disclosure, concealment, and lying to parents about their routine activities. US middle class youth (n = 131; Ms = 12.74, 15.81, 20.40 years, respectively) recalled a time they disclosed, concealed, and lied to parents; usin...

Supplementary material to accompany Smetana et al (2021)

Drawing from social domain theory, this study examined people’s evaluation of society-level disease-prevention regulations (e.g., school closure) and personal precautions (e.g., wearing a facemask) during the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, as assessed in Spring, 2020. Participants from three countries (United States [US], China, and Japan; N = 528)...

In this study, a total of 335 Palestinian refugees (M = 15.5 years, SD = 1.05, 49% males), recruited from four United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) schools at the Al-Baqa’a and Jabal Al-Hussein refugee camps in Jordan, rated their neighborhood physical environment and neighborhood support and cohesion, separately rated their mothers’ and f...

Research on children's evaluations of parental discipline or parental responses to peer conflicts has focused on parents' responses to hypothetical or actual child behavior. These parent behaviors are typically depicted as fair, reasonable, and appropriate, but what if they are not? In daily life, parents do sometimes act unfairly, or children eval...

Helicopter parenting (HP) is associated with poorer adjustment and worse relationships with parents among emerging adults, but these associations may depend on interpretations of HP and the family context in which it occurs. This study examined within-family patterns of mothers’ and fathers’ HP behavior and youth felt overcontrol, and their associa...

Children's evaluations of necessary harm (acts intended to prevent a greater harm) and how maternal disapproval and peer relationship play roles in this context were examined. A total of 120 children at 6, 9, and 12 years of age evaluated scenarios depicting prototypic and necessary (physical or verbal) harm. When a mother was depicted as disapprov...

Parent-adolescent relationships are related to adolescents’ disclosure and concealment, but these associations may represent between-family differences (e.g., families with more negative interactions have adolescents who disclose less) or within-family processes (e.g., when a family has more negative interactions, their adolescent discloses less)....

This study examined discrepancies between 4- to 7-year-olds’ (n= 135; Mage = 5.65) self-reported affect following hypothetical moral versus social-conventional transgressions and their associations with teacher-rated physical and relational aggression concurrently and 9-months later. Negative emotion ratings in response to prototypical moral transg...

This study used a social domain theory framework to investigate Chinese and U.S. individuals’ evaluations of intrasocietal conflicts (defined as situations where some individuals’ rights clash with collective interests), and how those evaluations might be influenced by concepts of high versus low power. Undergraduate students in both the United Sta...

The nature of adolescent–parent relationships has been a topic of enduring concern in developmental science. In this article, we review theory and current research on several central topics. First, we define adolescence as a developmental period and briefly discuss current theoretical and analytical approaches. Then, we consider adolescent–parent r...

This study examined 106 5- and 6-year-olds' (M = 5.84 years, SD = 0.62) judgments and justifications about psychological harm (e.g., acts such as teasing or excluding others) assessed in three experimental harm salience conditions (highly salient harm, less salient harm, and no harm) crossed with two victims' vulnerability conditions (typical child...

The patterning of 160 U.S. 4- to 9-year-olds' (M = 6.23 years, SD = 1.46) moral judgments regarding physical harm, psychological harm, and unfair resource distribution transgressions were examined in separate latent profile analyses. Judgments regarding physical harm yielded a single Prototypical profile, where transgressions were judged as very un...

Using an online survey, this study examined 101 Latter-day Saint (LDS, or Mormon) emerging adults’ (M = 21.63 years, SD = 2.20, 43 male) judgments of and justifications for prototypical moral and conventional rules, religious and non-religious gendered social conventions, and gendered religious practices and their associations with religiosity and...

This study examined 131 U.S. middle class early, middle, and late adolescents’ (M_age = 12.74, 15.81, and 20.40 years, respectively) narratives regarding experiences of disclosure, concealment, and lying to parents and responses to direct probes about lessons learned about self and parents. The thematic content focused primarily on routin...

In line with increasing calls for within-family analyses of monitoring processes, this study examined profiles of (combined) adolescent information management strategies and parent knowledge-gathering strategies among 174 families with middle adolescents (Mage = 15.7 years; 164 mother–teen and 112 father–teen dyads). Three mother–adolescent profile...

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 e...

This article examined links between 4- and 6-year-olds' (n = 101; Mage = 5.12 years, SD = 0.67; 53% male) ability to distinguish moral and conventional transgressions along different criteria and teacher ratings of proactive and reactive aggression. Latent difference score modeling revealed that moral transgressions were judged more unacceptable an...

The current study investigated associations between children's preferences and evaluations of moral and social-conventional transgressors in a novel puppet task and their links with explicit judgments in a standard interview. Children aged 2-3.25 years (M = 2.53 years, SD = 0.35) and 3.5-5 years (M = 4.38 years, SD = 0.52) watched two pairs of live...

This chapter highlights parents’ role, as considered from a constructivist perspective, in the development of moral and social concepts. We discuss research indicating that children interpret, act on, and increasingly with age, sometimes reject parents’ messages, particularly when they are inconsistent with their understanding, and show that the co...

Drawing on the framework of social domain theory, this multi-method, multi-informant longitudinal study examined whether callous-unemotional (CU) tendencies moderated the association between U.S. 4- to 7-year olds’ (n = 135; Mage= 5.65, 50% male; 75% White) ability to differentiate hypothetical, prototypical moral and conventional transgressions al...

This commentary discusses Gutman et al.'s monograph on developmental trajectories of African American and European American youth. Conceptual and methodological strengths of the monograph are highlighted, and the historical context of the study, including societal and technological changes that have altered the experience of adolescence and advance...

The degree to which social norms are processed by a unitary system or dissociable systems remains debated. Much research on children’s social-cognitive judgments has supported the distinction between “moral” (harm/welfare-based) and “conventional” norms. However, the extent to which these norms are processed by dissociable neural systems remains un...

Parental induction of empathy-related guilt plays an important role in children's moral development. However, guilt induction can also be psychologically controlling and detrimental for youth adjustment. This study provided a more nuanced view of parental guilt induction by examining how the nature of a child's misdeed and the structure and content...

Associations among moral judgments, neighborhood risk, and maternal discipline were examined in 118 socioeconomically diverse preschoolers (Mage = 41.84 months, SD = 1.42). Children rated the severity and punishment deserved for 6 prototypical moral transgressions entailing physical and psychological harm and unfairness. They also evaluated 3 crite...

Children (n = 160, 4- to 9-year-olds; Mage = 6.23 years, SD = 1.46) judged, justified, attributed emotions, and rated intent for hypothetical physical harm, psychological harm, and resource distribution transgressions against close friends, acquaintances, disliked peers, or bullies. Transgressions against bullies were judged more acceptable than ag...

Associations among hypothetical, prototypic moral, and conventional judgments; theory of mind (ToM); empathy; and personal distress were examined in 108 socioeconomically diverse preschoolers (Mage = 42.94 months, SD = 1.42). Repeated measures analysis of covariance with empathy, false beliefs, and their interaction as covariates indicated that emp...

Heterogeneity in parenting was examined in 883 Arab refugee adolescents in Jordan (Mage = 15.01 years, SD = 1.60). Latent profile analyses of five parenting dimensions rated separately for mothers and fathers yielded authoritative, authoritarian, indifferent, punitive, and for mothers, permissive profiles, with most mothers (60%) and fathers (66%)...

For decades, parenting has been characterized in terms of broad global styles, with authoritative parenting seen as most beneficial for children’s development. Concerns with greater sensitivity to cultural and contextual variations have led to greater specificity in defining parenting in terms of different parenting dimensions and greater considera...

Puerto Rican adolescents (N = 105; Mage = 15.97 years, SD = 1.40) evaluated hypothetical situations describing conflicts between Latino values (family obligations and respeto) and autonomy desires regarding personal, friendship, and dating activities. Adolescents judged that peers should prioritize Latino values over autonomy, which led to greater...

Parent-child discrepancies pervade the family literature; they appear in reports of relationship dynamics (e.g., conflict; Laursen et al. 1998), parent and child behaviors (e.g., monitoring; De Los Reyes et al. 2010), and individual family members' beliefs (e.g., parental legitimate authority; Smetana 2011). Discrepancies are developmentally normat...

The current study tested whether preschoolers' moral and social-conventional judgments change under social pressure using Asch's conformity paradigm. A sample of 132 preschoolers (Mage=3.83years, SD=0.85) rated the acceptability of moral and social-conventional events and also completed a visual judgment task (i.e., comparing line length) both inde...

Parent and adolescent (M = 15.7 years) beliefs regarding parents’ right to know (RTK) about adolescents’ activities were examined in 174 middle-class U.S. families. Mean differences and associations with latent changes in teens’ concealment were assessed. RTK was greatest about risky prudential activities, least for personal activities for parents...

We 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 en...

Socialization approaches and cognitive-developmental theory have provided two major approaches to studying moral development. Socialization approaches have focused on the development of conscience through guilt and internalized behavior, typically measured in terms of compliance, whereas cognitive-developmental theories have emphasized developmenta...

We examined within- and between-person variations in parental legitimacy beliefs in a sample of 883 Arab refugee youth (Mage = 15.01 years, SD = 1.60), 277 Iraqis, 275 Syrians, and 331 Palestinians, in Amman, Jordan. Latent profile analyses of 22 belief items yielded 4 profiles of youth. The normative profile (67% of the sample, n = 585) most stron...

This study examined intra- and interindividual variations in parental legitimacy beliefs in a sample of 883 Arab refugee adolescents (Mage = 15.01 years, SD = 1.60), 277 Iraqis, 275 Syrians, and 331 Palestinians in Amman, Jordan. Confirmatory factor analyses showed distinct latent factors for moral-conventional, prudential, and personal legitimacy...

This chapter describes research on adolescent-parent relationships as studied from the framework of social domain theory. Age-related changes in adolescents’ and parents’ conceptions of the boundaries of legitimate parental authority are described. Research is discussed indicating that adolescents’ desires for greater autonomy over personal issues...

Disclosure and secrecy with mothers and best friends about personal, bad behavior, and multifaceted (e.g., staying out late) activities were examined using daily diaries among 102 ethnically diverse, urban middle adolescents (M = 15.18 years, SD = .89). Adolescents disclosed more and kept fewer secrets from best friends than from mothers and more f...

Origins and Development of Morality Morality is a central aspect of social life and has been at the core of psychological theories for more than a century. The scientific study of morality poses enduring questions about how individual psychological needs for autonomy and attachment to groups and society can be met while also ensuring the integrity,...

Middle class mothers (n = 169) of middle adolescents (M = 15.69 years old) in the U.S. rated how much they want to know and responded qualitatively about what they “always” and “never” want to know about adolescents' risky prudential (e.g., drinking alcohol, using illegal drugs), personal (e.g., teens' private conversations), and multifaceted (invo...

Group care for children and adolescents is widely used as a rearing environment and sometimes used as a setting in which intensive services can be provided. This consensus statement on group care affirms that children and adolescents have the need and right to grow up in a family with at least 1 committed, stable, and loving adult caregiver. In pri...

This study examined how adolescents coordinate personal and moral concerns in reasoning about opposite-sex interactions. Sixty-four early and middle adolescents (Ms = 12.74, 16.05 years) were individually interviewed about two hypothetical situations involving opposite-sex interactions (commenting on appearance, initiating a date), presented in fou...

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 relati...

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 person...

Adolescents' obligation to disclose and their actual disclosure about their activities to parents, justifications for nondisclosure, and strategies for information management were examined in different domains in 460 middle adolescents (Mage = 16.6 years) from working and middle-class families in Japan. Adolescents felt most obligated to disclose p...

A total of 267 five-, seven-, and ten-year-olds (M = 7.62), 147 in Hong Kong and 120 in the United States, evaluated hypothetical personal (and moral) events described as either essential or peripheral to actors' identity. Except for young Chinese in the peripheral condition, straightforward personal events were overwhelmingly evaluated as acceptab...

We assessed 5- to 11-year-olds' (N = 76) judgments of straightforward moral transgressions (prototypical harm) as well as their evaluations of complex, hypothetical scenarios in which an actor transgresses in order to prevent injury (necessary harm). The nature of the actor's transgression (psychological or physical harm) varied across participants...

Moral complexity in middle childhood: Children’s evaluations of necessary harm

Associations between observed motheradolescent interactions during a conflict task and adolescents information management strategies were examined in 108 primarily middle class, European-American adolescents (M similar to=similar to 13.80 similar to years, SD similar to=similar to 1.52) and their mothers. Teens who communicated more clearly disclos...

Developmental trajectories and individual differences in 70 American middle-income 2½- to 4-year olds' moral judgments were examined 3 times across 1 year using latent growth modeling. At Wave 1, children distinguished hypothetical moral from conventional transgressions on all criteria, but only older preschoolers did so when rating deserved punish...

This article describes the current state of knowledge about adolescent social cognition. It begins with a brief overview of the different perspectives researchers use when studying social cognition. We then delve more deeply into specific topics that have been examined, including adolescents' conceptions of sociopolitical issues, such as government...

Disclosure and lying to mothers and fathers about different activities, as defined within social domain theory, were examined as a function of Latino family values in 109 Puerto Rican lower socioeconomic status middle adolescents (M=15.58 years, SD=1.18) living in the United States. Questionnaires revealed that teens sometimes disclosed to parents...

Associations between young children's developing theory of mind (ToM) and judgments of prototypical moral transgressions were examined 3 times across 1 year in 70 American middle class 2.5- to 4-year-olds. Separate path models controlling for cross-time stability in judgments, within-time associations, and children's age at Wave 1 indicated that ac...

This book explores the central importance of adolescents' own activities in their development. This focus harkens back to Jean Piaget's genetic epistemology and provides a theoretically coherent vision of what makes adolescence a distinctive period of development, with unique opportunities and vulnerabilities. An interdisciplinary and international...

This book explores the central importance of adolescents' own activities in their development. This focus harkens back to Jean Piaget's genetic epistemology and provides a theoretically coherent vision of what makes adolescence a distinctive period of development, with unique opportunities and vulnerabilities. An interdisciplinary and international...

This book explores the central importance of adolescents' own activities in their development. This focus harkens back to Jean Piaget's genetic epistemology and provides a theoretically coherent vision of what makes adolescence a distinctive period of development, with unique opportunities and vulnerabilities. An interdisciplinary and international...

Associations among parenting styles, parental authority beliefs, and adolescent—parent conflict were examined in 426 mothers of middle adolescents from 3 cities in Iran. Consistent with past research, mothers judged parental authority as less legitimate for personal than for conventional or prudential issues. Poorer, less educated mothers were more...

This book provides an in-depth examination of adolescents' social development in the context of the family. • Grounded in social domain theory, the book draws on the author's research over the past 25 years • Draws from the results of in-depth interviews with more than 700 families • Explores adolescent-parent relationships among ethnic majority an...

Developmental Changes in Adolescents' Thinking about Self and Personal IssuesPersonal Expression, Privacy, and Social MediaCoordinations between Personal Concepts and Concepts of MoralityDevelopment within and across DomainsSummary and Conclusions

Emerging Adulthood: Process or Stage?Relationships with Parents as Adolescence ConcludesTransitions from Adolescence to AdulthoodContinuity and Change in Social Development

Social Domain Theory: Distinct Domains of Social ThoughtParents' Perspectives on Conflict, InterpretedSummary and Conclusions

Links between theory of mind understanding and preschoolers’ moral judgments of psychological harm