Journal article
Rituals improve children's ability to delay gratification
- Abstract:
- To be accepted into social groups, individuals must internalize and reproduce appropriate group conventions, such as rituals. The copying of such rigid and socially stipulated behavioral sequences places heavy demands on executive function. Given previous research showing that challenging executive functioning improves it, it was hypothesized that engagement in ritualistic behaviors improves children's executive functioning, in turn improving their ability to delay gratification. A 3-month circle time games intervention with 210 schoolchildren (Mage = 7.78 years, SD = 1.47) in two contrasting cultural environments (Slovakia and Vanuatu) was conducted. The intervention improved children's executive function and in turn their ability to delay gratification. Moreover, these effects were amplified when the intervention task was imbued with ritual, rather than instrumental, cues.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
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- Files:
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, pdf, 417.9KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1111/cdev.12762
Authors
- Publisher:
- Wiley
- Journal:
- Child Development More from this journal
- Volume:
- 89
- Issue:
- 2
- Pages:
- 349-359
- Publication date:
- 2017-02-18
- Acceptance date:
- 2016-09-07
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1467-8624
- ISSN:
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0009-3920
- Pubs id:
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pubs:643795
- UUID:
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uuid:0280e9ec-7c56-40a6-a546-31eebaac2f29
- Local pid:
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pubs:643795
- Source identifiers:
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643795
- Deposit date:
-
2016-09-15
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- © 2017 The Authors
- Copyright date:
- 2017
- Notes:
- This is the author accepted manuscript following peer review version of the article. The final version is available online from Wiley at: 10.1111/cdev.12762
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