Determinants of adolescent distributive-justice reasoning skills in a face-to-face resource-allocation task with parents (mother and father) were examined with 45 families. Adolescents' distributive-justice reasoning was associated with satisfaction with family cohesion, mother-adolescent communication, and empathy, but not with father-adolescent communication, gender, or socioeconomic resources. Parental distributive-justice practices during the resource-allocation task reveal very different roles for mothers and fathers.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bakeman, R. , & Gottman, J. M. (1986). Observing interaction: An introduction to sequential analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press.
2.
Barnes, H. L. , & Olson, D. H. (1982). Parent-adolescent communication scale. In D. H. Olson, H. I. McCubbin, H. L. Barnes, A. Larsen, M. Muxen, & M. Wilson (Eds.), Family Inventories: Inventories used in a national survey of families across the family life cycle (pp. 33-48). St. Paul: University of Minnesota.
3.
Berscheid, E. (1985). Interpersonal attraction. In G. Lindzey & E. Aronson (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (3rd ed., pp. 413-484). New York: Random House.
4.
Brannen, J. , & Wilson, G. (1987). Introduction. In J. Brannen & G. Wilson (Eds.), Give and take in families: Studies in resource distribution (pp. 1-17). Boston: Allen & Unwin.
5.
Carlo, G. , Fabes, R. A., Laible, D., & Kupanoff, K. (1999). Early adolescence and prosocial/moral behavior II: The role of social and contextual influences. Journal of Early Adolescence, 19, 133-147.
6.
Collins, W. A. , & Russell, G. (1991). Mother-child and father-child relationships in middle childhood and adolescence: A developmental analysis. Developmental Review, 11, 99-136.
7.
Connidis, I. A. (1994). Sibling support in older age. Journal of Gerontology, 49, 309-317.
8.
Damon, W. (1977). The social world of the child. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
9.
Davis, M. H. (1996). Empathy: A social psychological approach. Boulder, CO: Westview.
10.
Davis, M. , & Franzoi, S. L. (1991). Stability and change in adolescent self-consciousness and empathy. Journal of Research in Personality, 25, 70-87.
11.
Doss, V. S. , Marlowe, J., & Godwin, D. D. (1995). Middle-school children's sources and uses of money. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 29, 219-241.
12.
Dwyer, J. W. , Lee, G. R., & Jankowski, T. B. (1994). Reciprocity, elder satisfaction, and care-giver stress and burden: The exchange of aid in the family caregiving relationship. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 56, 35-43.
13.
Eisenberg, N. , Miller, P. A., Shell, R., McNalley, S., & Shea, C. (1991). Prosocial development in adolescence: A longitudinal study. Development Psychology, 27, 849-857.
14.
Eisenberg, N. , & Strayer, J. (1987). Critical issues in the study of empathy. In N. Eisenberg & J. Strayer, (Eds.), Empathy and its development (pp. 3-13). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
15.
Enright, R. , Bjerstedi, A., Enright, W., Levy, V. M., Lapsley, D., Buss, R., Harwell, M., & Zindler, M. (1984). Distributive justice development: Cross-cultural, contextual, and longitudinal evaluations. Child Development, 55, 1737-1751.
16.
Greenstein, T. N. (1996). Gender ideology and perceptions of the fairness of the division of household labor: Effects on marital quality. Social Forces, 74, 1029-1042.
17.
Grotevant, H. D. , & Cooper, C. R. (1985). Patterns of interaction in family relationships and the development of identity exploration in adolescence. Child Development, 56, 415-428.
18.
Hauser, S. T. , Powers, S. I., Noam, G. G., Jacobson, A. M., Weiss, B., & Follansbee, D. J. (1984). Familial contexts of adolescent ego development. Child Development, 55, 195-213.
19.
Hoffman, M. L. (1987). The contribution of empathy to justice and moral judgement. In N. Eisenberg, & J. Strayer, (Eds.), Empathy and its development (pp. 47-80). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
20.
Horwitz, A. V. (1993). Adult siblings as sources of social support for the seriously mentally ill: A test of the serial model. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 55, 623-632.
21.
Kohlberg, L. (1976). Moral stages and moralization: The cognitive development approach. In T. Lickona (Ed.), Moral development and behavior: Theory, research and social issues (pp. 31-53). New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
22.
Kramer, R. M. , & Brewer, M. B. (1986). Social group identity and the emergence of cooperation in resource conservation dilemmas. In H.A.M. Wilke, D. M. Messick, & C. G. Rutte (Eds.), Experimental social dilemmas (pp. 205-234). Frankfurt, Germany: Peter Lang.
23.
Lee, G. R. , Netzer, J. K., & Coward, R. T. (1994). Filial responsibility expectations and intergenerational assistance. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 56, 559-565.
24.
Lerner, M. J. (1974). The justice motive: “Equity” and “parity” among children. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 29, 539-550.
25.
Leventhal, G. , & Anderson, D. (1970). Self interest and the maintenance of equity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 15, 57-62.
26.
Leventhal, G. , & Whiteside, H. (1973). Equity and the use of reward to elicit high performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 25, 75-83.
27.
Mehrabian, A. , & Epstein, N. (1972). A measure of emotional empathy. Journal of Personality, 40, 525-543.
28.
Messick, D. M. (1973). To join or not to join: An approach to the unionization decision. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 10, 145-156.
29.
Messick, D. M. (1974). When a little “group interest” goes a long way. Organizational Behaviour and Human Performance, 12, 331-334.
30.
Messick, D. M. (1991). Social dilemmas, shared resources, and social justice. In R. Vermunt and H. Steensma (Eds.), Social justice in human relations: Vol. 2. Societal and psychological consequence of justice and injustice (pp. 49-69). New York: Plenum.
31.
Olson, D. H. , McCubbin, H. I., Barnes, H., Larsen, A., Muxen, M., & Wilson, M. (1983). Families: What makes them work. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
32.
Peterson, C. , Peterson, J., & McDonald, N. (1975). Factors affecting reward allocation by preschool children. Child Development, 46, 942-947.
33.
Piaget, J. (1932). The moral judgement of the child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
34.
Skitka, L. J. , & Tetlock, P. E. (1992). Allocating scarce resources: A contingency model of distributive justice. Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, 28, 491-522.
35.
Strayer, J. (1989). What children know and feel in response to witnessing affective events. In C. Saarni & P. L. Harris (Eds.), Children's understanding of emotion (pp. 259-289). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
36.
Walker, L. J. , & Taylor, J. H. (1991). Family interactions and the development of moral reasoning. Child Development, 62, 264-283.