Developing Children’s Justice: Evidence from Intergenerational Similarity and Peer Homophily

Few studies have explored the influences of children’s justice. The present study investigated the associations of parents’ and peers’ justice with children’s justice based on the perspectives of intergenerational similarity and peer homophily. A total of 761 fourth- to ninth-graders aged 10–15 years old (Mean age = 12.62, SD = 1.74; 45.2% boys) and their mothers, fathers, and reciprocal playmates participated in this study. The justice subscale of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Adults (VIA-IS) and Youth (VIA-Youth) was used to measure the justice of each party. A multilevel regression analysis showed that high levels of mothers’, fathers’, and playmates’ justice were associated with a high level of children’s justice. Two-way interactions were found between mothers’ and playmates’ justice. Simple slope analyses showed that mothers’ high level of justice was related to high justice in children when playmates’ justice was low. Similarly, playmates’ high level of justice was related to a high level of justice in children when mothers’ justice was low. Moreover, multigroup analysis indicated gender differences in that the interaction and its compensatory effect were only observed in boys but not in girls. The findings also suggest a positive linkage of parents’ and peers’ justice with children’s justice and a compensatory interaction mechanism between mother and peer systems, which enriches evidence in the relevant research field and contributes to our knowledge of children’s virtue development.