Maternal reports of conscience development and temperament in young children.
Multiple manifestations of emerging conscience, their development, organization, and links with temperament were studied in 171 21-70-month-old children. A new parental report instrument was designed to measure conscience, with good psychometric qualities and predictive of children's behaviors in a laboratory. For most aspects of conscience, the major developmental shifts occurred around age 3.2 components of early conscience emerged in factor analyses: Affective Discomfort, significantly higher for girls, that encompassed guilt, apology, concern about good feelings with the parent following wrongdoing, and empathy with others, and Active Moral Regulation/Vigilance, which included confession and reparation following wrongdoing, internalization of rules of conduct (self-regulation), and concern about others' wrongdoing. Children's temperament, assessed by maternal reports, was associated with conscience. Low impulsivity and high inhibitory control were associated with Active Moral Regulation/Vigilance for both sexes and, for girls only, also with Affective Discomfort. For girls, temperamental reactivity related positively to Affective Discomfort and negatively to Active Moral Regulation/Vigilance.
Kochanska
G
G
Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242.
DeVet
K
K
Goldman
M
M
Murray
K
K
Putnam
S P
SP
D000339:Affect; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003242:Conscience; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D010553:Personality Development; D011594:Psychometrics; D012737:Sex Factors; D013694:Temperament