| The purpose of this study is to investigate how Japanese children judge conflict between children and parents. Japanese parent-child relationships have been characterized as harmonious. However, conflicts and disagreements also occur between children and parents in everyday life. The particular focus of the study was on (a) whether or not Japanese children always accept the parent's restrictions on the child's choices and (b) whether or not they accord personal autonomy to the child whose decisions go against the parent's demands. The study examined those judgments in the context of moral, conventional, and personal issues. Ninety-five children at seven, nine, and eleven years of age were individually interviewed regarding their perspectives on child-parent conflicts. Children were presented with hypothetical stories followed by a series of questions. These stories depicted everyday conflict situations in which the parent placed restrictions on the activities of the child based on moral, conventional, and personal concerns.;In the conflict over the child's and parent's personal preferences, children were most likely to support the child's assertion, grant the child decision making about this situation, and decline to agree with the legitimacy of the parent's command. They appealed to personal jurisdiction to support their judgments. The same pattern of judgments was found when the child's moral and conventional concerns clashed with the parent's dictates. The opposite pattern of judgments was obtained in the conflict between the child's wish and the parent's moral demand. Children applied moral reasoning to such judgments. Their judgments and reasoning were more varied about the conflict between the child's desire and the parent's conventional demand. These results indicate that Japanese children do not always accept parental authority in accord with a global cultural orientation such as collectivism and interdependence. Rather, their judgments about the legitimacy of parental authority and child assertion are heterogeneous and multifaceted, depending on the nature of issues embedded in child-parent conflicts. The results also suggest that children are capable of coordinating moral, conventional, and personal concerns when making decisions as to whether they comply with parents' demands or assert themselves to establish and maintain areas of personal autonomy. |
