Relation between the idea of immanent justice of children and the attitude of care-takers : in a case of farming area of Japan

Abstract

The author points that some beliefs about the world are given to children for the attainment of developmental tasks. In this article preliminary studies of children's belief of immanent justice are reported, which were administered to 5-year-olds and 6-year-olds of kindergarten in a farm area of Japan. The results of first two studies showed that more of the older children knew the concept of `Bachi' (punishment by `Kami') (study 1) and used this concept to explain the cause of unhappy events which followed wrong acts than the younger children (study 2). Study 3 were conducted to examine the variables which were hypothesized to affect to children's belief of immanent justice; care-taker's tendency of giving reasons with reference to `Bachi' or outer agents of punishments to children, egocentrism of children, lack of ability to find naturalistic cause, and mode of story ("fact mode" vs. "story mode"). The multiple regression analysis revealed the significant positive effects of age and the variable of care-taker's tendency. The results suggests that the idea of immanent justice might be given by care-takers as one tool of socialization.