ABSTRACT
From a young age, children value the fair and equal treatment of others. As well, they consider issues of social status, inequalities, and group norms in their moral decision-making. This chapter provides an overview of the landscape of recent research on moral development, with a particular focus on age-related changes in children’s and adolescents’ consideration of multiple factors (including status, pre-existing inequality, group identity, group norms, and intentionality) in morally relevant scenarios. First, we review our theoretical perspective. Then we document how social status and group identity inform children’s social decision-making. Next, we outline research focusing on when children challenge the unfair treatment of others in a variety of situations, including those involving resource allocation decisions and inclusion and exclusion decisions in group contexts. Then we document how psychological knowledge is related to children’s moral judgments, with a particular focus on how children’s theory-of-mind abilities contribute to challenging unfair treatment of others. Last, we discuss the broader implications of this research for promoting equity and fairness in children’s lives.
