Research Emphases and Current Projects
My current research focuses primarily on two distinct topics that are unified by my theoretical approach. At a broad level, my interests are in how children and adolescents come to understand and act in their social world. I employ the framework of social domain theory, a constructive, social-cognitive, and domain-specific approach to understand the development of social knowledge. I am interested in how children and adolescents draw distinctions between moral matters (issues pertaining to others' welfare, justice, and rights), social conventions (arbitrary, culturally variable social norms) and personal issues (personal choices and jurisdiction).
In my studies of adolescent-parent relationships, I am interested in the divergent ways that parents and children draw boundaries between parents' legitimate authority to control and decide different aspects of children's lives and what children rightfully can control (that is, what is seen in different ethnic and cultural contexts as personal). In studies of adolescent-parent conflict, I have investigated adolescents' and parents' different interpretations of conflicts and how they influence adolescent autonomy. I am currently interested in disclosure, nondisclosure, and secrecy in adolescent-parent relationships. We are investigating the types of issues that adolescents disclose or conceal in their relationships with their parents, the parenting and parent-adolescent relationship correlates of disclosure and secrecy, and the implications for healthy adolescent development. The underlying theme of these studies is how adolescents develop autonomy in the context of their relationships with parents.
In my studies of young children's social rule understanding, I am interested in learning more about children's developing understanding of and distinctions among moral and social conventional rules, as well as young children's understanding of personal issues. We are also studying how children's psychological understanding informs children's moral knowledge, how children apply their moral and conventional understanding to different issues, and the social interactions that facilitate children's understanding.
Our studies (past, current, and planned) employ different methods and multiple informants and many are conducted in different ethnic and cultural contexts. The following are some of the currently active projects in our lab.
"Adolescent-Parent Communication and Relationships"
Funded by the Fetzer Institute.
We are currently conducting a longitudinal study of adolescent-parent communication and relationships. We are studying over 200 middle class, ethnically diverse families with adolescents (10th through 12th graders) from the Rochester area and their mothers and fathers, who are participating in online surveys three times across a year. We are examining adolescents' willingness to share information about their activities (from risk behaviors like drinking to personal issues like what they talk about with friends) to parents and the different strategies (like lying or partial disclosure) they have for managing information. We are also examining the strategies parents use to keep track of their adolescents and what they want to know, feel they need to know, and do know about their adolescents' lives. We hope to learn more about healthy patterns of adolescent-parent relationships and communication.
- As part of this study, Wendy Rote is examining adolescents' and parents' evaluations of the acceptability of different strategies (lying and partial disclosure) for managing information.
"Disclosure and Secrecy in Adolescent-Parent Relationships in Japan"
This study, conducted with Dr. Larry Nucci at the University of California, Berkeley and several investigators in Japan examines Japanese teenagers' relationships with parents. Specifically, we are studying disclosure in Japanese adolescents' relationships with parents, including the types of issues they disclose or conceal, their reasons for concealing information, and the strategies they use to manage information with their parents.
"Disclosure, Secrecy, and Nondisclosure in Adolescent-Parent Relationships"
Funded by the National Science Foundation
As part of this grant, we conducted several studies of adolescent disclosure, nondisclosure, and secrecy in adolescent-parent relationships. Analyses from these studies are ongoing. These studies include:
- A daily diary study of disclosure and secrecy to parents and best friends about everyday activities in a sample of urban African American, Latino, and European American youth. Myriam Villalobos is currently examining disclosure in the context of relationships with mothers and best friends.
- Myriam Villalobos conducted a study of the influence of Latino cultural values on Latino adolescents' disclosure and secrecy with parents.
- With Jenny Yau (Azusa Pacific University) we conducted a study of disclosure to parents in American teenagers from Chinese, Mexican, and European backgrounds. In her doctoral dissertation, Marina Tasopoulos-Chan is examining associations between disclosure about different types of activities and adolescent adjustment.
"Children's Understanding of Moral and Social Rules"
We have conducted a longitudinal study of preschool children's understanding of moral and social conventional rules. Children (ages 2 1/2 to 4 years old) were interviewed three times across a year about familiar social rules. We are examining developmental pathways of children's moral and conventional rule understanding. We are also interested in the factors that influence its development and differentiation, including the influence of child temperament and children's developing understanding others' diverse beliefs and desires ("theory of mind").
"School-Age Children's Understanding of Necessary Harm"
(Marc Jambon)
This study examines elementary school children's understanding and reasoning about intentionally harmful actions performed for the purpose of helping or preventing harm. To fully understand these situations, children need to understand others' intentions. Therefore, this study will help us understand how children's psychological knowledge informs and is intertwined with children's moral reasoning.