Associations among child temperament, parenting, and young children's moral and conventional understanding: The moderating role of self‐regulation

Abstract The current study examined the role of child temperament, parenting, and their interactions in 2‐ to 6‐year‐olds’ ( n = 112; M age = 3.82 years, SD = 1.01) moral and social‐conventional understanding. Children's judgments regarding hypothetical moral and conventional transgressions were assessed in a semi‐structured interview administered on an iPad. Parents reported on their child's temperamental self‐regulation (i.e., effortful control) and negative affect, as well as their own parenting practices (hostility and positive affect); children's self‐regulatory behavior was assessed during a snack delay task. Parent‐rated child effortful control was associated with greater distinctions between moral and conventional judgments, as estimated using latent difference score modeling, but only when parents were high in positive affect. Parental hostility was associated negatively with moral‐conventional domain distinctions, but only for children with poorer behavioral self‐regulation. Finally, children high in negative affect differentiated moral and social‐conventional transgressions more only when they were rated as high in effortful control by parents. The results demonstrated that an interplay between child temperament and parenting was associated with the development of young children's moral and social‐conventional understanding.