A Study On The Developmental Features Of Forgiving Tendency In Children Aged 6-12

After reviewing previous studies on forgiveness, this study chooses the development of forgiving tendency in children as its topic. It takes a sample of 88 children aged 6-12 in three primary schools of Nanjing and Wuxi.According to the study method which Enright has adopted, this study interviews the objects with a given story, and the responses are scored in accordance with some standard. Then an analysis is carried out on computer in order to see whether the development of forgiveness in children corresponds with the Enright's developmental progression in understanding forgiveness. Besides, this study also analyzes the developmental features of children's forgiving tendency in three-dimension. The conclusions are as follows:1,Children aged 6-12 appear to develop a tendency of forgiveness.There was a relationship between age and children's understanding of forgiveness concept. Children who are older tend to comprehend more of forgiveness concept. The tendency of children's forgiveness turns out to be so-called "excuse" in Chinese. While in essence their "excuse" is nearly the same as "forgiving" according to the operational definition of forgiveness. However, children focus more on behavior than on cognition and affect when describe the tendency of forgiveness.2,Seeing from the condition dimension, children aged 6-12 develop a tendency of forgiveness as "physical or psychological revenge or compensation must occur before forgiveness is possible".Such a feature seems to correspond with the first and second stages in Enright's six-stage model of forgiveness development, and be consistent with pattern 1 in his three-pattern model in condition dimension. Yet as children are promoted to a higher class, they develop a tendency of expectational forgiveness which matches the third stage of six-stage model.3,Seeing from the manifestation and strategy dimension, there is a significant age group difference in children's forgiveness patterns, and as children are promoted to a higher class, they appear to form the external forgiveness which is pattern 2 in the three-pattern model of forgiveness.