Types of parental psychological control and rural and urban Chinese adolescents' psychological well-being and academic functioning.

The present study took a differentiated perspective on parental psychological control to examine its impact on adolescent adjustment among urban (n = 349, females: 53%) and rural (n = 293, females: 54%) Chinese adolescents (Mage  = 12.14 years). Four times over the first 2 years of Junior High school (from October, 2016 to April, 2018), adolescents reported on parental psychological control, their psychological well-being (life satisfaction and depressive symptoms), and academic relative autonomy. Adolescents' grades also were obtained. The findings show generally negative effects of social comparison shame, love withdrawal and harsh psychological control (but not shared shame or parental relationship-oriented guilt induction) on adolescents' psychological well-being, and negative effects of social comparison shame on adolescents' academic functioning.

Children's Judgments and Reasoning About Same-Sex Romantic Relationships.

Children's (5-, 7- to 8-, and 10- to 11-year-olds), and adolescents' (13- to 14-year-olds) judgments and reasoning about same-sex romantic relationships were examined (N = 128). Participants' beliefs about the acceptability and legal regulation of these relationships were assessed, along with their judgments and beliefs about excluding someone because of his or her sexual orientation and the origins of same-sex attraction. Older participants evaluated same-sex romantic relationships more positively and used more references to personal choice and justice/discrimination reasoning to support their judgments. Younger participants were less critical of a law prohibiting same-sex relationships and were more likely to believe it was not acceptable to violate this law. Beliefs about origins of same-sex attraction showed age-specific patterns in their associations with evaluations.

Judgments and reasoning about parental discipline involving induction and psychological control in China and Canada.

This study examined judgments and reasoning about four parental discipline practices (induction or reasoning and three practices involving "psychological control"; Barber, 1996; two forms of shaming and love withdrawal)among children (7­14 years of age) from urban and rural China and Canada (N = 288) in response to a moral transgression. Children from all settings critically evaluated love withdrawal and preferred induction. Despite being perceived as more common in China than in Canada, with age, parental discipline based on shaming or love withdrawal was increasingly negatively evaluated and believed to have detrimental effects on children's feelings of self-worth and psychological well-being. Some cultural variations were found in evaluations of practices, perceptions of psychological harm, and attribution of parental goals.

An event-related potential study of adolescents' and young adults' judgments of moral and social conventional violations.

The neurocognitive development of moral and conventional judgments was examined. Event-related potentials were recorded while 24 adolescents (13 years) and 30 young adults (20 years) read scenarios with 1 of 3 endings: moral violations, conventional violations, or neutral acts. Participants judged whether the act was acceptable or unacceptable when a rule was assumed or removed. Across age, reaction times were faster for moral than conventional violations when a rule was assumed. Adolescents had larger N2 amplitudes than adults for moral and neutral, but not conventional, acts. N2 amplitudes were larger when a rule was removed than assumed for moral, but not conventional, violations. These findings suggest that the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying moral and conventional judgments continue to develop beyond early adolescence.

Epistemological development and judgments and reasoning about teaching methods.

Children's, adolescents', and adults' (N = 96 7-8, 10-11, and 13-14-year-olds and university students) epistemological development and its relation to judgments and reasoning about teaching methods was examined. The domain (scientific or moral), nature of the topic (controversial or noncontroversial), and teaching method (direct instruction by lectures versus class discussions) were systematically varied. Epistemological development was assessed in the aesthetics, values, and physical truth domains. All participants took the domain, nature of the topic, and teaching method into consideration in ways that showed age-related variations. Epistemological development in the value domain alone was predictive of preferences for class discussions and a critical perspective on teacher-centered direct instruction, even when age was controlled in the analysis.

Urban and rural Chinese adolescents' judgments and reasoning about personal and group jurisdiction.

This research applied social domain theory to illuminate reasoning about the perceived legitimacy and limits of group decision making (majority rule) among adolescents from urban and rural China (N = 160). Study 1 revealed that adolescents from both urban and rural China judged group decision making as acceptable for both social conventional and prudential issues, but not for personal issues or those that entailed possible harmful coercion of others. Study 2 revealed that personal jurisdiction develops later for rural than urban adolescents for certain issues (democratic rights to political participation and choice of friends). Results indicate that reasoning about group and personal jurisdiction in a non-Western society (China) is influenced by social domain, age, and environmental setting (modern vs. traditional).

Balancing Social Responsibility and Personal Autonomy: Adolescents' Reasoning About Community Service Programs.

Many jurisdictions in North America have implemented mandatory community service programs in high schools. However, little research exists examining the reasoning of youth themselves about such programs. This study examined how youth reason about community service programs, and how they balance the prosocial goals of these programs against their personal autonomy. Seventy-two participants between 10 and 18 years old evaluated voluntary community service along with 4 hypothetical mandatory programs that varied according to whether students or the government decided the areas in which students would serve, and whether a structured reflection component was included. The findings reveal that youth are not simply self-focused but rather balance and coordinate considerations of autonomy and community in their judgments and reasoning about community service.

The Role of Agent and Social Context in Judgments of Freedom of Speech and Religion.

This study examined children's, adolescents', and college students' judgments of the rights of child and adult agents to freedom of speech and religion in 3 social contexts: the general level of society, the school, and the family. Two hundred forty participants, evenly divided into 5 grade levels (mean ages 6,6, 8,5,10,6,12,4, and 22,7) made judgments of the legitimacy of authority prohibition, rule evaluation, generalizability, and rule violation for all freedom/social context/agent combinations. Concepts of freedom of speech and religion were found to emerge in the early elementary school years, and endorsements of freedoms were increasingly affected by social context and agent with age. College students were less likely than any other age group to affirm children's freedom of religion in the family context. Considerations of the mental competence and maturity of agents and the potential for harm to ensue from acting on freedoms played an important part in the decisions of older, but not younger, participants.

The development of reasoning about the teaching of values in school and family contexts.

This study investigated children's, adolescents', and young adults' reasoning about the teaching of a variety of values in the school and family contexts. One-hundred and sixty participants in four age groups (8-, 10-, and 13-year-olds, and college students) evaluated acts involving the teaching of values and laws that regulate the teaching of these values. Both the valence (positive or negative) of values and the context in which they were presented (school, family) were systematically varied. Results showed that a variety of factors were considered in evaluating the teaching of values, including context, the valence of the value, and the type of value being taught. Participants' reasoning about values education was found to be multifaceted and included distinctions between moral values that reflect justice and rights, and values that reflect other forms of personality traits and social values. The findings suggest that conceptions of values education may be better understood within models of social reasoning that draw distinctions between types of values (e.g., moral and other values) and account for the increasing capacity to differentiate social contexts and spheres of legitimate governmental regulation with development.

Chinese adolescents' reasoning about democratic and authority-based decision making in peer, family, and school contexts.

This study explored the judgments and reasoning of Chinese adolescents (13-18 years of age) from 3 regions of mainland China (N = 574) regarding procedures for making decisions involving children in peer, family, and school contexts. Participants evaluated 2 democratic decision-making procedures (majority rule and consensus) and decision making by adult authorities for 2 decisions embedded in each social context. Judgments and reasoning about decision-making procedures varied by social context and by the decision under consideration, and evaluations of procedures became more differentiated with increasing age. The findings reveal that concepts of rights, individual autonomy, and democratic norms (majority rule) are salient aspects of Chinese adolescents' social reasoning and are used to evaluate critically existing social practices.