About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 13. Moral Development

Abstract

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Siblings are an important source of influence in young children’s development. Despite this, research examining how siblings influence children’s prosocial behaviour has mainly focused on Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, & Democratic (WEIRD) populations. Understanding sibling influences on sharing tendencies across ontogeny and cultures is important to gain a more representative view of social influences on behaviour in the global population. In the current study, we investigated the influence of siblings on 4-6-year-old children’s sharing in samples from Bulgaria, Romania, and Scotland. To establish sharing tendencies, participants completed three tasks. Participants incurred a personal cost in the first and third tasks by sharing stickers (task one) or balloons (task three) with the experimenter who had none. In task two, participants incurred no personal cost; instead, they commented on how sweets should be distributed in a fictional scenario between two same-aged peers. Data collection is complete, but analysis is ongoing. Across each country, we predict that children with siblings will share more than those without siblings, and older children will share more than younger children, especially in the personal cost tasks (one and three). In the no-cost scenario (task two), we predict that older and younger children will be just as likely to share. Comparing between countries, we predict that samples of children from Bulgaria and Romania will be more prosocial than samples of children from Scotland. Completed analyses and results will be presented at the conference.

Author information

Author	Role
Dr. Emily J. E. Messer, Heriot-Watt University	Presenting author
Kristina, Galabova	Non-presenting author
Danielle, spencer	Non-presenting author
Katie, Brennan	Non-presenting author
Gabriella, Lucan	Non-presenting author
Emilia, Pascal	Non-presenting author
Nicola, McGuigan	Non-presenting author
Mioara, Cristea	Non-presenting author

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