University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5R 2X2, Canada.
Child Development Institute, Toronto, Ontario M6E 3V4, Canada.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2020 Apr;192:104768. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2019.104768. Epub 2020 Jan 2.
The current study examined whether children (6-12 years old) with varying levels of conduct problems differ from those without conduct problems in three key areas: their perceptions of how often other people tell lies, their moral evaluations of truth- and lie-telling in different social contexts, and how often they tell antisocial and prosocial (i.e., "white") lies. Using a continuous measurement of conduct problems, we found that children with greater conduct problems believed that other people tell lies more often compared with children with fewer conduct problems. However, unexpectedly, children's moral evaluations of truth- and lie-telling in antisocial and prosocial contexts did not significantly differ based on conduct problems. Using parent-report methods, we found that children tell more antisocial lies with increasing severity of conduct problems, but they tell prosocial lies at a similar rate regardless of conduct problems. Finally, after grouping children based on level of conduct problems (none, low, or high), we found that children in the group with no conduct problems told more prosocial lies than antisocial lies, but the reverse was found for children in the group with high conduct problems. These findings highlight the importance of considering social context when examining the development of lying in children experiencing conduct problems.
本研究考察了行为问题程度不同的 6-12 岁儿童在以下三个关键领域与无行为问题的儿童有何不同：他们对他人说谎频率的看法、他们对不同社会情境下诚实和说谎的道德评价，以及他们说谎的频率，包括反社会和亲社会的谎言（即“白色”谎言）。我们使用行为问题的连续测量方法发现，与行为问题较少的儿童相比，行为问题较多的儿童认为其他人说谎的频率更高。然而，出人意料的是，儿童在反社会和亲社会情境下对诚实和说谎的道德评价并不因行为问题而有显著差异。使用父母报告的方法，我们发现随着行为问题严重程度的增加，儿童会说更多的反社会谎言，但无论行为问题如何，他们说亲社会谎言的频率是相似的。最后，我们根据行为问题的程度（无、低或高）对儿童进行分组后发现，无行为问题组的儿童说亲社会谎言多于反社会谎言，但高行为问题组的儿童则相反。这些发现强调了在考察有行为问题的儿童说谎发展时，考虑社会情境的重要性。
