title: Judgments of damage to public versus private property in Chinese children at different historical times.
abstract: This study examined children's judgments of damage to public versus private property in China at two historical times. Participants were two cohorts (1980 and 2012) of elementary school children at ages 7, 9, and 11 years. The children were administered paired stories that described a protagonist who damaged public or private property with a good or bad intention. The results showed that children in the 2012 cohort were less likely than their counterparts in the 1980 cohort to judge damage to public property as more culpable than damage to private property. The cohort differences were more evident in older children than in younger children. The results suggest that macro-level contexts may play an important role in shaping children's judgments.
authors.affiliation: Applied Psychology-Human Development Division, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
authors.forename: Xinyin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Junsheng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijjing, China.
authors.forename: Huichang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Applied Psychology-Human Development Division, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA.
authors.forename: Siman
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhao
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D044466:Asian People; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D012574:Schools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012922:Social Change; D012926:Social Control, Formal; D012941:Social Responsibility