title: Japanese and Canadian Children's Beliefs about Child and Adult Knowledge: A Case for Developmental Equifinality?
abstract: Children do not know everything that adults know, nor do adults know everything that children know. The present research examined the universality of beliefs about child and adult knowledge and their development with 4- and 7-year-old Canadian and Japanese children (N = 96). In both countries, all children were able to identify adult-specific knowledge and only older children displayed beliefs about child-specific knowledge. However, Japanese and Canadian children differed in whether they used their own knowledge in deciding whether a person who knew an item was a child or an adult. In addition, parental and child beliefs were related in Japan but not in Canada. These findings indicate that children growing up in different cultures may take different paths in developing beliefs about age-related knowledge. Implications for theories of socio-cognitive development and learning are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada.
authors.forename: Stanka A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Fitneva
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pile Ho
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Clinical Studies, Miyagi Gakuin Women's University, Sakuragaoka, Aoba-ku, Sendai 981-8557 Japan.
authors.forename: Misako
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hatayama
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002170:Canada; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D019359:Knowledge