I Know why the caged bird sings

What Do Children Feel Guilty About? Christopher Williams and Jane Bybee of Northeastern University were interested in discovering the frequency of guilt provoking events in adolescents. They wanted to establish proof for the hypothesis that age-related changes in children were attributed to developmental changes in cognitive reasoning. Past research has indicted that children with high levels of guilt are less delinquent, more compassionate, and more academic excitable children expressing less guilt in similar situations. It …

…and inconsiderate behaviors. The detectable gender differences were that male students reported more property damage, fighting, and victimizing of animals in comparison to female students. Female students reported lying and inconsiderate behavior more frequently than their male counterparts. The data produced in this study does not parallel the sources of guilt feelings in adults. It has been concluded that developmental differences are related to the difference between the sources of guilt in children and adults.