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Children’s and Adolescents’ Expectations about Challenging Unfair Group Norms

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Abstract

Youth often hold group norms that perpetuate inequality. One way these norms can be changed is by challenging these norms by choosing to include new members into these groups who hold morally just norms. In the current study, children’s and adolescents’ inclusion decisions and social reasoning about challenging group norms through inclusion were investigated. The sample included 9–10 (children) and 13–14 year-olds (adolescents) (N = 673, 54.4% female). Participants supported including challengers into groups holding norms supporting relational aggression and unequal allocation of resources, but they were less likely to support including a challenger into a physically aggressive group. Age-related differences and gender differences were found: children and female participants were more likely to include challengers than were adolescents and male participants. The findings indicate that youth support including new members who would challenge morally questionable group norms, but that their support depends on the specific norm the group holds.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Aline Hitti, Dominic Abrams and Adam Rutland. We are grateful to the students, parents, teachers and research assistants who participated in and assisted with this study. The first author was supported by the Elizabeth M. Koppitz Fellowship from the American Psychological Foundation and by the Ann G. Wylie Dissertation Fellowship from the Graduate School at the University of Maryland during the execution of this study. The last author was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (#BCS-0840492).

Author Contributions

K.L.M. and M.K. designed the study, and drafted the manuscript. K.L.M. conducted the data collection and analyses. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Educational Studies, University of South Carolina, 129 Wardlaw, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA

    Kelly Lynn Mulvey

  2. Dept of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland, 3942 Campus Drive, Suite 3304, College Park, MD, 20742-1131, USA

    Melanie Killen

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Correspondence to Kelly Lynn Mulvey.

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This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Maryland.

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Only students receiving parental consent (9–10 year-olds), and providing student assent (all participants) completed the tasks.

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Mulvey, K., Killen, M. Children’s and Adolescents’ Expectations about Challenging Unfair Group Norms. J Youth Adolescence 46, 2241–2253 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-017-0671-y

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