Research suggests that adolescents as young as 13 years old reason about such abstract rights as freedom of speech and religion. It is unclear whether such reasoning develops earlier. Also unclear is the role of adults as agents in inculating in children the adults' views on such rights. A study examined 184 Canadian students in the first, third,…

Examined children's, adolescents', and college students' judgments of children's and adults' rights to freedom of speech and religion in societal, school, and family contexts. Found that endorsements of these freedoms were increasingly affected by social context and agent with age. College students were less likely than others to affirm children's…

Examined the conceptions of freedom of speech and religion held by 48 adolescents and young adults, using a structured interview containing assessments of civil liberties in general, in straightforward applications, and in conflict with other social and moral concerns. Findings indicate that sophisticated conceptions of civil liberties emerge by…