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. 2017;23(1):38-61.
doi: 10.1080/13229400.2016.1176588. Epub 2016 Jun 3.

When and Why Parents Prompt Their Children to Apologize: The Roles of Transgression Type and Parenting Style

Craig E Smith  1 , Jee Young Noh  2 , Michael T Rizzo  2 , Paul L Harris  3
Affiliations

When and Why Parents Prompt Their Children to Apologize: The Roles of Transgression Type and Parenting Style

Craig E Smith et al. J Fam Stud. 2017.

Abstract

Young children are sensitive to the importance of apologies, yet little is known about when and why parents prompt apologies from children. We examined these issues with parents of 3-10-year-old children (N = 483). Parents judged it to be important for children to apologize following both intentional and accidental morally-relevant transgressions, and they anticipated prompting apologies in both contexts, showing an 'outcome bias' (i.e., a concern for the outcomes of children's transgressions rather than for their underlying intentions). Parents viewed apologies as less important after children's breaches of social convention; parents recognized differences between social domains in their responses to children's transgressions. Irrespective of parenting style, parents were influenced in similar fashion by particular combinations of transgressions and victims, though permissive parents were least likely to anticipate prompting apologies. Parents endorsed different reasons for prompting apologies as a function of transgression type, suggesting that they attend to key features of their children's transgressions when deciding when to prompt apologies.

Keywords: apology; moral development; parenting; social domain theory; socialization.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Standardized Mean Scores on the Parental Authority Questionnaire Subscales as a Function of Cluster Profile
Figure 2
Figure 2
a and b. Mean Scores on Apology Prompt Likelihood Scale as a Function of Transgression Type, Victim Type, and Parenting Style (The model in Figure 2a controls for parent and child gender, child age, parent education, child birth order, and respondents’ social desirability bias; the more parsimonious model in Figure 2b controls for social desirability bias.)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Mean Scores on Apology Prompt Likelihood Scale as a Function of Transgression Type and Victim Type
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mean Rating of Apology Importance as a Function of Transgression Type and Parenting Style
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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