The ontogeny of children's group-based guilt and motivated reparative prosocial behaviors

Group-based guilt is known for its role in mitigating intergroup conflict and facilitating reconciliation. Although extensive research has explored this emotion among adults, its development and reparative functions during childhood remain unclear. The present study investigated the emergence and development of group-based guilt and its reparative prosocial behaviors among children (Han Chinese aged 4-11 years, N = 268, 135 girls) in response to transgressions committed by in-group members. The results indicated that children began to report group-based guilt soon after they reached 5 years old, with the intensity of this feeling increasing with age. Between the ages of 5 and 6 years, children developed a tendency to engage in verbal prosocial expressions (e.g., apologizing, comforting, and helping) to repair the harm caused by their in-group. However, it was not until nearly 8 years of age that they began sacrificing their possessions to compensate the victim. Both forms of reparative behavior were strengthened with age. Group-based guilt mediated the relationships between harm illegitimacy, in-group responsibility, and reparative behaviors. Overall, these findings suggest that harm illegitimacy and in-group responsibility serve as cognitive antecedents to group-based guilt, which emerges in preschool and transforms into more sophisticated intergroup reparative behaviors as children grow older. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).