Children’s production and comprehension of politeness in requests: Relationships to behavioural adjustment, temperament and empathy

Abstract

This study investigated the relationships of children’s behavioural adjustment, temperamental approach tendencies and empathy to their ability to produce and comprehend one aspect of politeness (namely level of directness) in requests, in a sample of 100 ten-and-a-half-year-old children from the Australian Temperament Project (ATP) population. The study showed that high levels of anxious fearful behaviour problems increased the likelihood of producing less direct requests to more powerful others while high levels of approaching temperament increased the likelihood of producing less direct requests to more distant others. High levels of hostile aggressive behaviour problems increased the likelihood of producing direct requests to more distant others. By comparison high levels of approaching temperament, empathy and social anxiety increased the likelihood of children judging more direct requests to more powerful others to be effective. The findings supported the view that individual differences are related to children’s use of directness in response to variation in the social context of request situations.