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ERIC Number: EJ1237365
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2020-Jan
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: N/A
Chinese and South Korean Children's Moral Reasoning Regarding the Fairness of a Gendered Household Labor Distribution
Midgette, Allegra J.
Developmental Psychology, v56 n1 p91-102 Jan 2020
This study explored age-related changes in Chinese and Korean children's fairness judgments and reasoning regarding the gendered division of household labor. The majority of previous research on this issue has focused on adults' experiences and has been conducted in Western countries. Interviews were conducted with 133 children, 65 Chinese and 68 South Korean, ages 9-11 (N = 48), 12-14 (N = 43), and 16-18 (N = 42). Despite country differences in women's involvement in the workforce, in both countries women do most of the housework. Most participants across ages evaluated a hypothetical scenario in which the mother did most of the work as unfair and endorsed a hypothetical scenario in which housework was divided evenly as fair. Developmental effects were found with younger children in both countries employing more equality justifications and adolescents providing more social convention justifications. In both countries, children described their mother as doing most of the housework and, in contrast with their judgments about hypothetical situations, were evenly divided overall in their evaluations of whether this unequal distribution in their actual families was fair. Korean children were more likely to view their family's division as unfair than Chinese children and were more likely to employ equality justifications in support of those judgments. Unexpectedly, across countries moral reasoning in the form of expectations of equity rather than gender stereotyping was employed to justify an unequal division of labor. This study's findings suggest the value of investigating children's fairness judgments and moral reasoning regarding both hypothetical and actual situations.
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: China; South Korea
Grant or Contract Numbers: T32HD07376