Bridging theory of mind and the personal domain: children's reasoning about resistance to parental control

Four-, 5-, and 7-year-olds (N = 60) listened to vignettes featuring characters that wanted to do actions that conflicted with parental rules. Desires included behaviors associated with the personal domain: friend, activity, and clothing choice. Scenarios involving moral rules served as a comparison. Children predicted and explained characters' actions and emotions. Results showed significant increases between 4 and 7 in judgments that characters would comply with rules and feel good, but only for situations involving moral rules. Children frequently predicted that characters would disobey rules that intruded on the personal domain and would feel positive emotions following noncompliance, especially when activities were essential to that character's identity. Findings are discussed in relation to the development of self and personal control.