Justice Sensitivity in Childhood and Adolescence: Terms of Development and Effects as a Risk and Protective Factor

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Rebecca Bondü
• Subject Area: Developmental and Educational Psychology ; Personality Psychology, Clinical and Medical Psychology, Methodology ; Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 339207502

• Final Report Year: 2023

Final Report Abstract

The project „Justice Sensitivity in Childhood and Adolescence: Development and Effects as a Risk and Protective Factor“ (JUST-Study) examined justice sensitivity, that is, the tendency to perceive and adversely respond to injustice, in middle childhood as well as its associations with different forms of prosocial and antisocial behavior and internalizing and externalizing problem behavior in childhood and adolescence. To this end, we conducted a longitudinal study with two measurement points and 1,379 children in first to fourth grade as well as their parents and teachers. Results showed that justice sensitivity can be reliably and validly be measured via self- and parent-reports at least from middle childhood onwards and that it already shows the common factor structure of three related, but separate justice-sensitivity perspectives. Associations with social competencies, temperament, and prosocial and antisocial behavior in line with our hypotheses as well as re-test reliabilities similar to findings in adolescence and adulthood indicate that justice sensitivity may be relevant for experience and behavior not only early on, but also long-term . We were the first to show associations between the justice-sensitivity perspectives and classic measures of moral development, sharing and distributive decisions as well as punishment motives . To gain insights into the relations of justice sensitivity and internalizing and externalizing problem behavior, we used the data of more than 1,600 adolescents and three measurement points from the PIER-Study. We found differential bi-directional associations between the justice-sensitivity perspective and pathological eating behavior, non-suicidal self-harming behavior, substance use, and victimization, as well as aggressive behavior and its trajectories. We identified different US profiles that may also show differential links with well-being and behavior. In sum, the project results point to a relevance of the sensitivity towards injustice in versatile areas of experience and behavior at least from middle childhood onwards and that it deserves more research attention in the future.

Publications

• Justice sensitivity and aggressive behavior in middle childhood. 23rd World Meeting of the International Society for Research on Aggression, Paris, 11.-14.07.2018.
  Kleinfeldt, M. & Bondü, R.
  
• Links of justice sensitivity with aggressive and prosocial behavior in middle childhood. 23rd Workshop on Aggression, Berlin, 01.-03.11.2018.
  Kleinfeldt, M., Strauß, S. & Bondü, R.
  
• Exploring justice sensitivity in middle childhood: Measurement and related constructs. 19th European Conference on Developmental Psychology. Athens, Greece, August 29th- September 1st, 2019.
  Strauß, S. & Bondü, R.
  
• Justice sensitivity in couple relationships. 24th Workshop on Aggression. Stavanger, Norway, 7th-8th November 2019.
  Strauß, S. & Bondü, R.
  
• Justice sensitivity in middle childhood: Measurement and relations with social skills. 23. Fachgruppentagung Entwicklungspsychologie der DGPs. Leipzig, 09.-12. September 2019.
  Strauß, S. & Bondü, R.
  
• Links between justice sensitivity, rejection sensitivity and problematic eating behavior. 23. Fachgruppentagung Entwicklungspsychologie der DGPs. Leipzig, 09.-12. September 2019.
  Bilgin, A., Bondü, R. & Warschburger, P.
  
• Observer justice sensitivity (JS-O) as a predictor of compensation and punishment in children: An experimental study. 23. Fachgruppentagung Entwicklungspsychologie der DGPs. Leipzig, 09.-12. September 2019.
  Kleinfeldt, M., Bondü, R. & Birke, J.
  
• Victim justice sensitivity (JS-V) as a predictor for social withdrawal and unjust behavior: An experimental study. 23. Fachgruppentagung Entwicklungspsychologie der DGPs. Leipzig, 09.-12. September 2019.
  Birke, J., Bondü, R. & Kleinfeldt, M.
  
• Equal sharing is just caring: Links between justice sensitivity and moral behavior in middle childhood. Moralforschertagung 2020, München, 24.-25.01.2020.
  Strauß, S. & Bondü, R.
  
• Justice sensitivity and rejection sensitivity as predictors and outcomes of eating disorder pathology: A 5‐year longitudinal study. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 53(6), 926-936.
  Bondü, Rebecca; Bilgin, Ayten & Warschburger, Petra
  
• Justice Sensitivity in Middle Childhood: Measurement and Location in the Temperamental and Social Skills Space. Journal of Personality Assessment, 103(4), 476-488.
  Strauß, Sophie; Bondü, Rebecca & Roth, Felix
  
• Justice Sensitivity in Middle Childhood: A Replication and Extension of Findings. Frontiers in Psychology, 11.
  Bondü, Rebecca & Kleinfeldt, Maria
  
• Links between Justice Sensitivity and Moral Reasoning, Emotions and Identity in Middle Childhood. Moralforschertagung 2021, Online.
  Strauß, S. & Bondü, R.
  
• Links between justice sensitivity and moral reasoning, moral emotions and moral identity in middle childhood. EADP Summer Tour 2021, Online.
  Strauß, S. & Bondü, R.
  
• Links of justice sensitivity with forms, functions, and trajectories of aggression in adolescence: A Five-Year Longitudinal Study. EADP Summer Tour, September 10th, 2021. Online.
  Das Friebel, A., Krahé, B. & Bondü, R.
  
• Longitudinal associations between justice sensitivity, nonsuicidal self-injury, substance use, and victimization by peers. Development and Psychopathology, 34(4), 1560-1572.
  Bilgin, Ayten; Bondü, Rebecca & Elsner, Birgit
  
• What Drives Second- and Third-Party Punishment? Conceptual Replications of the ‘Intuitive Retributivism’ Hypothesis. ISJR 2021, Online.
  Strauß, S. & Bondü, R.
  
• Links between justice sensitivity and moral reasoning, moral emotions, and moral identity in middle childhood. Child Development, 93(2), 372-387.
  Strauß, Sophie & Bondü, Rebecca
  
• Who May Punish How?. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 230(2), 174-184.
  Strauß, Sophie & Bondü, Rebecca
  
• Fair sharing is just caring: Links between justice sensitivity and distributive behavior in middle childhood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 226, 105561.
  Strauß, Sophie & Bondü, Rebecca