This study focuses on Saudi mothers’ and their children’s judgments and reasoning about exclusion based on religion. Sixty Saudi children and their mothers residing in Saudi Arabia and 58 Saudi children and their mothers residing in the United Kingdom were interviewed. They were read vignettes depicting episodes of exclusion based on the targets’ religion ordered by peers or a father. Participants were asked to judge the acceptability of exclusion and justify their judgments. Both groups rated the religious-based exclusion of children from peer interactions as unacceptable. Saudi children and mothers residing in the UK were less accepting of exclusion than were children and mothers residing in Saudi Arabia. In addition, children and mothers residing in the UK were more likely to evaluate exclusion as a moral issue and less likely as a social conventional issue than were children and mothers residing in Saudi Arabia. Mothers in the UK were also less likely to invoke psychological reasons than were mothers in Saudi Arabia. Children’s judgments about exclusion were predicted by mothers’ judgments about exclusion. In addition, the number of times children used moral or social conventional reasons across the vignettes was positively correlated with mothers’ use of these categories. The findings, which support the Social Reasoning Development model, are discussed in relation to how mothers and immersion in socio-cultural contexts are related to children’s judgments and reasoning about social exclusion.

这项研究侧重于沙特母亲及其子女对基于宗教的排斥的判断和推理。采访了居住在沙特阿拉伯的60名沙特儿童和他们的母亲以及居住在英国的58名沙特儿童和他们的母亲。他们阅读了小插图，描绘了根据同辈或父亲下令的目标宗教信仰而排斥事件的情节。要求参与者判断排除的可接受性并证明他们的判断是正确的。两组都将基于宗教的儿童排斥在同伴互动中视为不可接受的。与居住在沙特阿拉伯的儿童和母亲相比，居住在英国的沙特儿童和母亲较少接受排斥。此外，与居住在沙特阿拉伯的儿童和母亲相比，居住在英国的儿童和母亲更有可能将排斥视为道德问题，而不太可能将其视为社会常规问题。与沙特阿拉伯的母亲相比，英国的母亲也不太可能援引心理原因。儿童对排斥的判断是由母亲对排斥的判断所预测的。此外，儿童在小插曲上使用道德或社会常规原因的次数与母亲对这些类别的使用成正相关。研究结果支持了社会推理发展模型，并讨论了母亲和沉浸在社会文化环境中如何与孩子对社会排斥的判断和推理相关。