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Children's Acquisition of Appropriate Norms for Friendships and Acquaintances

Carnegie Mellon University

Cheryl Shapiro

State University of New York at Buffalo

Margaret S. Clark

Carnegie Mellon University

Research with adults demonstrates the existence of distinct norms governing the intentional giving and receiving of benefits within the context of different types of relationships. This study focuses on the development of children's adherence to these norms. We examined first and third grade children's allocation of jointly earned rewards after they had worked on a task with either an acquaintance or a friend. In both grades, more children working with friends than with an acquaintance divided the reward equally. In both grades acquaintances tended to use an equity norm more often than did friends. This effect was not significant among first graders but was significant among third graders. Moreover, third grade pairs of friends were significantly more likely than first grade pairs of friends to divide rewards equally. These results provide evidence of children's increasing use of communal norms in their friendships.

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