Abstract
The present study exploredhow Taiwanese mothers teach their children to share,andthe linkages to young children’s moral reasoning and sharing behavior.73 mother-childdyads participated in the study.The average age of the children was59.86 months, withan age range of 49 to 75months, 39 boys and 34 girls.Mothers’ teaching frequency ofsharing in daily life and in shared reading were investigated using questionnaire. Thecontent type of maternal teaching of sharing were analysed according to the mothers’explanations to the “not sharing event” task. The mothers’ answers were scoredaccording to the level of moral principles developed by Malti et al. (2010). The children’answers to the same task were also scored. The children’s sharing behavior was ratedby their preschool teachers.The results of this study showed that most Taiwanese mothers often ask their childrento share toys or food with peers. The main rationale the mothers gave was that theyhope their children follow the moral rules of the society, followed by they thoughtsharing is the best way to make friends, and they wanted to cultivate their children’sempathy. Correlation analysis showed that the frequency of the mothers teaching thevalue of sharing in shared reading was positively related to young children’s activesharing behaviours. Maternal moral reasoning level in explaining the “not sharing event”was positively related to young children’s moral understanding of sharing, their activesharing behaviour and their passive sharing behaviour.The findings of the present study suggest that it would be beneficial for parents to takethe opportunity to discuss the value of sharing in shared reading. Parents should alsomind the moral level of the rationales they provide to the children, the higher the morallevelof the explanation the parents give, the more the children realize the value ofsharing and the more sharing behavior the children would present.