Cross-national comparison of how children distinguish serious and playful fighting.

Abstract

Criteria used to distinguish between play fighting and serious fighting were investigated for 8- and 11-year-old children in Italy and England, using videotaped and questionnaire-based interviews. There was high consensus in describing most videotaped episodes as either playful or serious. Results were similar for Italian and English children (irrespective of whether a videotape of Italian or English children was used for cue generation) at both ages (older children showed slighly higher consensus) and for both sexes (boys more frequently and accurately judged episodes to be serious fighting). The most frequently cited criteria in the videotape study were the quality of physical actions and inference about affect or intent. The questionnaire study yielded further criteria of facial expression and verbalization