This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Pedlow, R. Articles by Sanson, A. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Children’s Production and Comprehension of Politeness in Requests

Relationships to Behavioral Adjustment in Middle Childhood

Telstra Corporation

Roger Wales

Latrobe University

Ann Sanson

Melbourne University

This study investigated the production and comprehension of requests by 10-year-old children with and without hostile-aggressive and anxious-fearful behavior problems. A representative sample of 100 children completed tasks involving the production and comprehension of politeness in requests. The results from the production task showed that when the children were explicitly asked to ask politely they primarily used "please" to indicate politeness, whereas face-saving politeness was marked by the use of question directives and hints. Children with hostile-aggressive and comorbid behavior problems were less likely than comparison group children to use question directives and hints in some social contexts, whereas children with anxious-fearful behavior problems were the same as the comparison group. The results of the comprehension task showed that children without behavior problems were more likely to judge nonpolite requests (which did not contain any politeness features) to be effective, compared with children with behavior problems.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. Pedlow, A. Sanson, and R. Wales Children's production and comprehension of politeness in requests: Relationships to behavioural adjustment, temperament and empathy First Language, October 1, 2004; 24(3): 347 - 367. [Abstract] [PDF]