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The Homogeneity and Heterogeneity of Moral Functioning in Preschool

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Child Development
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Enda Tan
Enda Tan
Enda Tan
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Amori Yee Mikami at University of British Columbia
Amori Yee Mikami
Anastasiya Luzhanska
Anastasiya Luzhanska
Anastasiya Luzhanska
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J Kiley Hamlin at University of British Columbia
J Kiley Hamlin
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Abstract

The current study examined relations between distinct aspects of moral functioning, and their cognitive and emotional correlates, in preschool age children. Participants were 171 typically developing 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds. Each child completed several tasks, including (a) moral tasks assessing both performance of various moral actions and evaluations of moral scenarios presented both verbally and nonverbally; and (b) non‐moral tasks assessing general cognitive skill, executive functioning, theory‐of‐mind, and emotion recognition. Shyness and empathic concern were assessed from video acquired during participation. Results demonstrated positive associations among distinct moral actions, as well as among distinct moral evaluation tasks, but few associations between tasks assessing moral actions and moral evaluation. Empathic concern and inhibitory control each emerged as important predictors of preschoolers’ moral functioning.
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The Homogeneity and Heterogeneity of Moral Functioning in Preschool
Enda Tan , Amori Y. Mikami , Anastasiya Luzhanska, and J. Kiley Hamlin
University of British Columbia
The current study examined relations between distinct aspects of moral functioning, and their cognitive and
emotional correlates, in preschool age children. Participants were 171 typically developing 3- to 6-year-olds.
Each child completed several tasks, including (a) moral tasks assessing both performance of various moral
actions and evaluations of moral scenarios presented both verbally and nonverbally; and (b) non-moral tasks
assessing general cognitive skill, executive functioning, theory-of-mind, and emotion recognition. Shyness and
empathic concern were assessed from video acquired during participation. Results demonstrated positive
associations among distinct moral actions, as well as among distinct moral evaluation tasks, but few associa-
tions between tasks assessing moral actions and moral evaluation. Empathic concern and inhibitory control
each emerged as important predictors of preschoolers’moral functioning.
From an early age, children demonstrate a wide
range of skills which allow them to navigate the
complex social and moral world. As third parties,
children evaluate others based on their moral
actions, viewing intentional moral transgressions as
wrong (Killen, Mulvey, Richardson, Jampol, &
Woodward, 2011), judging prosocial individuals to
be nice, and allocating punishment to antisocial
individuals (Van de Vondervoort & Hamlin, 2017).
As first parties, children engage in their own proso-
cial behaviors, helping others achieve instrumental
goals (Svetlova, Nichols, & Brownell, 2010), com-
forting distressed others (Zahn-Waxler, Radke-Yar-
row, Wagner, & Chapman, 1992), and sharing
resources with others (Warneken, Lohse, Melis, &
Tomasello, 2011). The diversity of these morally rel-
evant skills (including moral evaluations and moral
behaviors) begs two important questions: Should
we view children’s moral functioning as a unified
construct? And if so, what are the mechanisms that
unify these seemingly distinct mental and behav-
ioral processes? The current study aimed to address
these questions by assessing the consistency
between different aspects of moral functioning, and
their cognitive and emotional correlates, in pre-
school-age children.
Relations Between Different Forms of Moral Behaviors
Relations Between Types of Prosocial Behaviors
Are there consistencies in children’s production
of different types of moral behaviors? Some scholars
argue that different forms of prosocial behaviors are
unrelated, primarily because they are based on dis-
tinct mechanisms. For instance, Dunfield (2014)
argues that helping, comforting, and sharing are eli-
cited by different negative states (i.e., instrumental
need, emotional distress, and unmet material desire,
respectively), and that these negative states are rep-
resented by different neural mechanisms. In a simi-
lar vein, Paulus (2014) proposes that different
prosocial behaviors are driven by distinct motiva-
tions: While instrumental helping is motivated by a
desire to fulfill others’goals or to engage in social
interactions, comforting is driven by emotional con-
tagion or empathic concerns, and sharing is driven
by compliance to an explicit request, conformity to
social norms, and a desire to interact. These theories
suggest that, given the diverse mechanisms underly-
ing different forms of prosocial behaviors, prosocial
behaviors should not be viewed as a homogeneous
construct (Dunfield, 2014; Paulus, 2014).
Empirically, the heterogeneity of prosocial
behaviors is supported by studies finding no
This work was supported in part by Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Grant and
UBC Hampton Fund Research Grant to K. Hamlin. We thank
Shannon Bridson, Hannah de Vries, Vivian Wong, Rachelle Gra-
ham, Brianna Vissers, Thaddeus Grams, Adam Shillington, Kristi
Atkinson, and Giulia Santaca for their assistance. The data
reported in the paper are deposited in the Department of Psy-
chology at UBC. The authors have no conflict of interest to
declare.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to
Enda Tan, Department of Psychology, University of British
Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
V6T 1Z4. Electronic mail may be sent to enda.tan@psych.ubc.ca.
©2020 Society for Research in Child Development
All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2021/9203-0013
DOI: 10.1111/cdev.13458
Child Development, May/June 2021, Volume 92, Number 3, Pages 959–975
... Scholars from a dispositional view propose that reliable individual differences across prosocial behaviours are possible given that the mechanisms of prosocial behaviours are not entirely mutually exclusive (Eisenberg et al., 2015) and may be biologically rooted in the evolutionary history of the human species (Tan et al., 2021). ...
... Notably, by the third wave, we found these two groups as well, although by this age (34 months) most children were engaging in both instrumental and empathic helping. This latter finding of a group of helpers is similar to that of Tan et al. (2021) who found that among preschoolers (5-year-olds), instrumental helping and empathic helping were more strongly correlated with each other than with sharing (although notably we did not find this to be the case in the present study). These results generally support the notion that already in the second year, prosocial behaviours are showing some consolidation and cohesion at least for some children, and that as toddlers mature there is greater consolidation of prosocial behaviours, particularly helping. ...
... Variable-centred analyses (correlations) focusing on across task and across wave correlations found significant but low consistency across tasks and low stability for each prosocial behaviour over time. In addition, and consistent with several previous studies (e.g., Tan et al., 2021) that used a variable-centred approach, different types of prosocial behaviours were correlated with each other both cross-sectionally and longitudinally but at modest levels. ...
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... Furthermore, shift in attention or flexibility, planning skills and working memory are defined as aspects of executive functions (Cowell et al., 2015;Hinnant et al., 2013). Tan et al. (2020) additionally conceptualize the ability to delay gratification as an aspect of executive functions (Mischel et al., 1972;Rodriguez et al., 1989). With regard to the respective definitions and aspects, overlaps with the temperament-related aspects of self-regulation were found. ...
... Further included studies suggest that prosocial behavior can mirror moral behavior and antisocial behavior can mirror immoral behavior (Asendorpf & Nunner-Winkler, 1992;Augustine & Stifter, 2015;Colasante et al., 2014;Stifter et al., 2009). For example, sharing or donating has been conceptualized as prosocial as well as moral behavior (Cowell et al., 2015(Cowell et al., , 2017Reis & Sampaio, 2019;Smith et al., 2013;Tan et al., 2020;Wildeboer et al., 2017). Reis and Sampaio (2019) conceptualize sharing as a behavioral component associated with moral reasoning, arguing that sharing shows ways in which children apply and judge norms of justice. ...
... Further studies used other conceptualizations such as moral motivation (Asendorpf & Nunner-Winkler, 1992) and moral abilities or competencies in a broader sense (Feldman, 2007;Garner, 2012;Tan et al., 2020). ...
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... Patterns across primary studies that have investigated childhood EF using canonical performance-based measures are difficult to discern, given mixed findings and large variation in sample sizes and effect sizes. For example, one study found that EF measured in kindergarten is related to prosocial behaviors, even after controlling for sex, mother's education, and verbal and nonverbal IQ (Hubert et al., 2017); however, a more recent study found no such relation (Tan et al., 2021). Similarly, some studies suggest EF is negatively related to internalizing symptoms (Muñoz & Anastassiou-Hadjicharalambous, 2011), whereas others have found the opposite (e.g., Troller-Renfree et al., 2019) or no relation (e.g., Henning et al., 2011). ...
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... Im Weiteren werden die empirischen Originalarbeiten und -analysen beschrieben, die dem (Baker et al., 2021;Cowell et al., 2015Cowell et al., , 2017Hinnant et al., 2013;Tan, Mikami, Luzhanska & Hamlin, 2020;Wang, Hong, Pei, Wang & Su, 2021;Zelazo & Müller, 2011 (Eisenberg & Spinrad, 2004). Zudem wird in einer Studie zwischenmenschliche Emotionsregulation beschrieben, was die Regulierung der Emotionen anderer umfasst (Gummerum & López-Pérez, 2020 (Bandura, 2002;Guerra, Nucci & Huesmann, 1994). ...
Selbstregulation und Moralentwicklung in der emotionalen und sozialen Entwicklung von Grundschulkindern
Thesis
  • Sep 2024
Ziel dieser Dissertation ist die differenzierte Erforschung verschiedener Konstrukte der Selbstregulation sowie die Untersuchung von Verhaltensproblemen im Kontext der Moralentwicklung und die Überprüfung eines Messinstruments zur Erfassung moralischer Konstrukte im Kindesalter. Zunächst wurde ein systematisches Review, einschließlich einer Meta-Analyse, durchgeführt. Die anschließenden empirischen Analysen basieren auf Quer- (Npilot = 194, NT1 = 348) und Längsschnittdaten (NT2 = 189) von Grundschulkindern und deren Sorgeberechtigten. Die moralische Entwicklung in der mittleren Kindheit ist komplex und wird von verschiedenen Faktoren beeinflusst. Diese Arbeit hebt die Rolle der Selbstregulation, insbesondere der Emotionsregulation, hervor und betont die Bedeutung einer differenzierten der Konzepte. Darüber hinaus verdeutlicht die Arbeit die Notwendigkeit eines validen Messinstruments zur Erfassung differenzierter moralischer Konstrukte. Sie zeigt auf, dass sowohl zu niedrige als auch zu hohe moralische Vorstellungen mit Verhaltensproblemen assoziiert sein können.
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... Other studies have showed that higher level of ES may be linked to specific social behaviors, including a preference to pause to check and withdrawal from overstimulating situations (i.e., shyness; Aron et al., 2005). Prosocial behaviors require an intensive social involvement which can lead to higher difficulties to engage in prosocial behaviors especially in shy individuals (for example in children, Eisenberg et al., 2019;MacGowan & Schmidt, 2021;Tan et al., 2021). Thus, we can infer that higher levels of ES can also be linked to lower engagement in prosocial behaviors. ...
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... However, previous research found a gap between children's normative stances and their actual sharing behavior (Blake, 2018;Smith et al., 2013;Tan et al., 2021), highlighting the complex relationship between moral decision-making and the act of sharing. Theories and empirical evidence emphasized the moral self-concept (MSC) as a potential moderator to bridge this gap (Blasi, 1983;. ...
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... Patterns across primary studies that have investigated childhood EF using canonical performance-based measures are difficult to discern, given mixed findings and large variation in sample sizes and effect sizes. For example, one study found that EF measured in kindergarten is related to prosocial behaviors, even after controlling for sex, mother's education, and verbal and nonverbal IQ (Hubert et al., 2017); however, a more recent study found no such relation (Tan et al., 2021). Similarly, some studies suggest EF is negatively related to internalizing symptoms (Muñoz & Anastassiou-Hadjicharalambous, 2011), whereas others have found the opposite (e.g., Troller-Renfree et al., 2019) or no relation (e.g., Henning et al., 2011). ...
Does Preschool Executive Function Predict Concurrent and Later Social, Health, and Behavioral Outcomes? A Meta-Analysis
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Preschool executive function (EF) is widely believed to support development across many domains of life. While it is established that EF predicts academic achievement, claims are also frequently made that it predicts social, health, and behavioral outcomes. These claims are often made on the basis of research assessing constructs that are related to but distinct from EF, such as self-control and self-regulation. The primary literature shows inconsistent patterns. We report a meta-analysis of relations between preschool EF in typically developing children and social, health, and behavioral outcomes measured concurrently, in middle childhood, and in adolescence (904 effect sizes, k = 125, n = 106,426). Preschool EF was related to several outcomes concurrently (prosociality, emotion regulation, lie understanding, lower body mass) and longitudinally (social competence, emotion understanding, peer acceptance, adaptive classroom behavior, lower externalizing behavior); however, effect sizes varied in magnitude and were smaller than those reported in a recent meta-analysis of self-regulation (Robson et al., 2020). Preschool EF was not related to internalizing behaviors or physical fitness. Meta-analysis of some longitudinal associations was precluded due to insufficient studies. Findings were not moderated by EF component (i.e., working memory, inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility). We did not find evidence that composite measures of EF were better predictors than individual indices. These results indicate that preschool EF, as commonly conceptualized and measured, may play a role in outcomes beyond academic achievement, but this role may be more limited than commonly thought. Interventions targeting preschool EF should be reevaluated in light of this evidence.
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... Preschool EF skills like emotional regulation are also linked to children's social and academic success in kindergarten and beyond (Denham, 2006). Moreover, these EF skills have been linked to preschoolers' language skills (Fujik et al., 2002), vocabulary development (Bohlmann et al., 2015), theory of mind (Carlson & Moses, 2001;Devine & Hughes, 2014), and even their moral behavior (Tan et al., 2020). Taken together, EF plays an important role in children's academic and overall development. ...
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