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. 2013 May-Jun;84(3):906-20.
doi: 10.1111/cdev.12009. Epub 2012 Nov 12.

Mine or yours? Development of sharing in toddlers in relation to ownership understanding

Celia A Brownell  1 , Stephanie S Iesue, Sara R Nichols, Margarita Svetlova
Affiliations

Mine or yours? Development of sharing in toddlers in relation to ownership understanding

Celia A Brownell et al. Child Dev. 2013 May-Jun.

Abstract

To examine early developments in other-oriented resource sharing, fifty-one 18- and 24-month-old children were administered 6 tasks with toys or food that could be shared with an adult playmate who had none. On each task the playmate communicated her desire for the items in a series of progressively more explicit cues. Twenty-four-month-olds shared frequently and spontaneously. Eighteen-month-olds shared when given multiple opportunities and when the partner provided enough communicative support. Younger children engaged in self-focused and hypothesis-testing behavior in lieu of sharing more often than did older children. Ownership understanding, separately assessed, was positively associated with sharing and negatively associated with non-sharing behavior, independent of age and language ability.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Proportion of 18- and 24-month-olds who shared on the first task without being asked, and proportion who ever shared over all six tasks, including when directly asked.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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