Parenting and young adolescents’ belief in a just world

Abstract

Until the age of 7 or 8, children typically believe in immanent justice, and are convinced that wrongdoings are automatically punished (Piaget, 1932/1997). As they grow older, however, children slowly abandon this belief in immanent justice and realise that things sometimes happen at random, and that the good may be punished while wrongdoers are not. In response to this realisation, children develop a belief in a just world. Because of their cognitive development, older children and adults have no difficulty in identifying random events. Nevertheless, they sense that a random fate is unjust, and when given the possibility to justify a negative fate by reasoning that it was self-inflicted, for example, they will embrace the chance to do so. Thus, the belief in a just world (BJW) can be interpreted as a more mature version of children’s belief in immanent justice – as the belief that people in general deserve their fate, but accompanied by the cognitive ability to identify causality and randomness (Dalbert, 2001).