Conceptions of Moral and Social Rules in Rejected and Nonrejected Preschoolers

In this study, we examined the relationship between peer group status and conceptions of moral and social rules in preschoolers. Four- to 5-year-olds (N = 102) were classified into five status groups: controversial, popular, average, neglected, and rejected. There was a significant Peer Group Status x Rule Domain effect on conceptions of the punishment due to perpetrators of transgressions. In contrast to the rejected children, the four nonrejected groups accorded more punishment to violations of moral than of social rules. The distinction between the punishment due to the perpetrators of transgressions in the two domains was made most clearly by the small number of controversial children. These findings were unrelated to the length of time that the groups had been in attendance at child care centers (mean length of attendance = 191/2 months). As in previous studies, compared to transgressions against social rules, moral transgressions were regarded as naughtier, worthier of punishment, wrong if there was no punishment, and wrong outside specific social contexts. Boys' judgments of the wrongness of rule violations were less relative to context than were girls'. The relation of rule conceptions to children's social acceptance is discussed.