Adolescents’ Reasoning About Peer Conflicts in Schools
With Hariclia Petrakos, Ana Maria Velásquez, Gabriel Velez, and Cecilia Wainryb
Funded by SSHRC
Current Student Collaborators: Amanda Bonin, Vilma Escorcia, Laura Pareja Conto, Angelica Restrepo, Ricardo Salas Dorado
Overall, this line of our work, examines youths’ reasoning about retributive and restorative justice models in schools. In different studies, we are exploring (a) adolescents’ viewpoints on preventing and addressing peer conflicts in schools, (b) their reasoning for supporting more restorative and/or retributive orientations to harms, and (c) their perception of the role that different community members (e.g., teachers, parents, other peers) have in the resolution of peer harms.
The Role of Parents in Supporting Children’s Moral Development
With Melanie Dirks, Monisha Pasupathi, and Cecilia Wainryb
Funded by SSHRC
Current Student Collaborators: Jaclyn Ohayon, Teresa Pirro, Alyssa Scirocco, Nazila Tolooei
This aspect of our work examines how parents help their children in making sense of and learning from transgressive and prosocial morally-laden experiences. We are currently examining mothers’ moral socialization strategies in conversations about their 6- to 16-year-old children’s experiences of harming and being harmed by agemates, as well as situations in which they have helped or been helped by their friends. We are also interested in the socialization strategies that parents and children judge to be most effective in supporting children’s moral learning in different contexts, and how parents’ thinking about their own moral transgressions is related to their constructions of meaning about their teenagers’ transgressions.
Families’ Perspectives on Daily Sibling Interactions
With Melanie Dirks and Nina Howe
Current Student Collaborators: Laura Amodeo, Kerem Araboglu, Christine Kinsley
In an ongoing daily diary study led by Christine Kinsley, we are examining the positive and negative aspects of daily interactions between siblings. Our goals are to assess similarities and differences between children’s and parents’ reports of daily interactions, to examine how global measures of sibling relationship quality are associated with everyday interactions, and to examine how sibling interactions are linked to between- and within-family variations in parental stress.
Children’s and Adolescents’ Judgments and Experiences of Prosocial Action and Refusal
Current Student Collaborators: Gabrielle Leclerc, Jasmine Manan, Nasim Tavassoli
In a project led by Nasim Tavassoli, we are examining how children, adolescents, and young adults make judgments about their own and others’ prosocial actions and refusals. We are especially interested in documenting the lessons learned from non-prototypical prosocial experiences (e.g., those in which individuals help others but ultimately regret doing so). As part of the same study, we are also examining parents’ prosocial socialization goals and intervention strategies, and how parents’ efforts to support their children’s prosocial development are balanced with other pragmatic and prudential concerns.
Philosophical Dialogues as Contexts for the Development of Children’s Moral Imagination
With Natalie Fletcher and Baptiste Roucau
Current Student Collaborators: Miranda Reid
This collaboration with Brila Youth Projects examines the development of children’s critical, creative, and caring thinking in the context of their participation in philosophical dialogues and creative projects. We are especially interested in how children’s experiences with collaborative philosophical dialogue can support their capacity to engage in deliberate moral imagining, and the role of adult facilitation in supporting children’s development.
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