10-Kinship

Reminder of a review session.
Mention of the Marshall et al. paper in Nature Human Behavior; students are not responsible for it.

Inquiry into children’s ability to distinguish between types of social relationships.

Key Investigations:
- Study 1: Focus on children’s expectations regarding kinship.
- Participants: Children aged 3 to 5 years.
- Questions for Children:
  - For Cara’s Sister:
  - Which person has the same last name as Cara?
  - Which person has Cara never seen before?
  - For Cara’s Friend:
  - Which person has Cara played with many times?
  - Which person does Cara not know much about?
- Scenarios Explored:
  - Children evaluated social relationships through questions about familiarity and kinship.

Goal: Examine how children aged 3 to 5 understand and reason about kinship relations compared to friendship relations.
Design:
- Conceptual questions (e.g., “Who has the same grandmother?”).
- Behavioral prediction questions (e.g., “Who would share a treat with whom?”).
- Context included both conceptual and behavioral predictions through a storytelling method.
Results:
- 3- and 4-year-olds did not reliably distinguish between kin and friends.
- Conclusion:
  - Children's explicit understanding of kinship emerges gradually across preschool years.
  - 3- and 4-year-olds all understand friend vs. stranger, 3-year-olds struggle with last name question in kin vs. stranger, both 3- and 4-year-olds struggle with kin vs. friend

Study Context:
- Investigated how children infer friendship through secret sharing.
- Participants: Children from ages 3 to 12 (N = 452).
- Design: Five studies asking if sharing a secret indicates friendship.
- Secret vs. cookie, secret vs. fact etc.
Findings:
- 3 to 5-year-olds are at chance of secret vs. cookie, 6-8 above chance 9-12 even higher
  - Similar pattern for secret vs. fact (protracted development)
- By age 6, children began to expect friendships to form when secrets were shared.
- Children younger than 6 do not infer friendship from secret sharing but recognize that friends share secrets.
- Secret sharing was perceived as a stronger indicator of friendship than sharing physical objects or facts.
- Conclusion:
  - Over middle childhood kids begin to understand the social world in unique and more nuanced way
  - Children understand the social significance of secrets in forming friendships.

Study Focus:
- Whether children infer social relationships (friendship) based on resource distribution.
- Design: Children aged 4 to 9 observed unequal distributions of resources:
  - Partial Procedure: Intentionally favoring one child.
  - Impartial Procedure: Randomized distribution (using a die).
Findings:
- Children thought that those who partial-distributed resources were better friends with the favored child.
- Younger children (4-6) also inferred friendship from impartial distributions.
- Older children (7-9) differentiated between intentional and random distributions concerning friendship.
- Conclusion:
  - Children’s understanding of resource distribution evolves with age, enabling them to discern between friendship cues and random acts.

Discussion Prompt:
- During observations, what cues do children utilize to determine familial relationships?

Study Details:
- Children aged 5 to 7 explored the concept of saliva sharing to infer close relationships.
- Methodology: Presented scenarios involving food sharing and toy sharing.
Examples Escaped with Scenarios:
- Saliva Sharing: Sharing ice cream lick between a girl and either her sister or friend.
  - Inquiry: Who did she share with?
- Food Sharing: Cookies distributed similarly.
- Non-Divisible Toys: Involvement of scooters and the implications of sharing them.
- Divisible Toys: Legos were also tested under similar sharing conditions.

Probability of Choosing Family:
- Various probabilities observed concerning sharing food types and toys between siblings and friends.
Significance:
- Findings resonate with Marshall et al. results concerning unmeasured forms of help indicating close relationships.

Friendship and Relationship Distinctions:
- Children identify differences between kin and friends around age 4, with an increased sophistication in understanding friendship around ages 6-7.
- Recognition that mutual sharing (both secrets and resources) signifies friendship.
- Early understanding of kinship relationships identified through very young children's responses about sharing behaviors.

All students are encouraged to study diligently and come prepared.
**Next session starts at *11:00 am.* Bring writing tools (pen/pencil) for notes during the session.