Children’s social status and anticipated shame and guilt experiences

Abstract

Previous research indicates that the behavioral profile of high-status children is not monolithic but varied. This study contributes to the existing research on high-status children by showing that they are also an emotionally diverse group in terms of their anticipated shame and guilt experiences. Children ( N = 163, aged 8–12 years) nominated classmates who were perceived as popular, socially preferred, respected, and overtly aggressive. Regarding anticipated shame and guilt experiences, children also related how much they would experience shame and guilt and display correlated behaviors after reading stories which varied the transgression type (intentional harm, unintentional harm, and incompetent behavior) and the transgression frequency (many times vs. once). We found that children who were perceived by other children to be both highly popular and high in another area of social status related to a communal goal orientation (social preference, respect, and nonaggression) anticipated significantly more shame and guilt feelings than children who were perceived to be only highly popular and children who were low in social status. Moreover, these children also anticipated using significantly more appeasement than apologetic strategies when they imagined acting incompetently many times; a pattern not in evidence with other children. These findings suggest that children who are viewed as both popular and communal are more sensitive to the ways transgressions could influence what they would feel and what they would do, compared to children who are viewed as popular but not communal and children who are neither popular nor communal.

The Influence of Negative Feedback and Social Rank on Feelings of Shame and Guilt: A Vignette Study in 8- to 13-Year-Old Non-Clinical Children

“…Due to further cognitive maturation, the external evaluations of children’s behavior are gradually internalized, which makes stable self-evaluations possible [ 12 ]. From the age of 8 onwards, most children experience feelings of shame and guilt and have a good comprehension of these emotions [ 2 , 13 , 14 ].…”

“…However, research on the effect of social rank on self-conscious emotions in children is sparse, and the only study conducted so far has yielded quite unexpected results. Stapleton et al [ 14 ] compared the anticipated shame and guilt experiences of high and low social status children. A group of children, consisting of 74 boys and 89 girls aged 8 to 12 years, were asked to nominate classmates as popular, socially preferred, respected, and overtly aggressive.…”

“…Altogether, these findings are not in agreement with the social rank theory and suggest that the relation between social status and the emotions of shame and guilt might be rather complicated. However, it should be noted that Stapleton et al [ 14 ] used peer nomination to measure the social rank of children instead of asking the children themselves how they experienced their position within the group of peers. As indicated earlier, experiencing self-conscious emotions is related to one’s self-image.…”