To tell the truth or not: What effortful control, false belief, and sympathy tell us about preschoolers' instrumental lies

This study aimed to examine the predictors of instrumental lies in preschool children, specifically focusing on false belief, effortful control, and sympathy. Instrumental lies are intentional falsehoods used to achieve personal goals such as avoiding punishment and obtaining an undeserved reward. A total of 192 preschool children (age range = 32-73 month-olds), along with their mothers and fathers, participated in the study. The Temptation Resistance Paradigm, an experimental task, was employed to elicit instrumental lies from the children. The children also completed first-order false belief measures, and their parents filled out questionnaires assessing their children's effortful control and sympathy skills. Results revealed a positive association between children's effortful control and their decisions to tell instrumental lies. However, no significant relationship was found between false belief and instrumental lying. Age moderated the link between sympathy and the decision to tell instrumental lies, with sympathy being negatively associated with lie-telling behavior among older children but showing no effect among younger children. The study variables did not predict the maintenance of instrumental lies. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the role of effortful control and sympathy as underlying temperamental and emotional processes influencing children's decisions to engage in instrumental lie-telling.

An Intervention Program for Male Juvenile Offenders in Turkey: A Pilot Randomized Trial

Researchers have developed various intervention programs to prevent children from committing crimes and from recidivism; however, few intervention programs have been implemented in juvenile detention centers in Turkey. The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a psychoeducation program to improve the social skills of juvenile offenders. The participants consisted of 38 male adolescents aged 13 to 18 years (M = 17.02, SD = 1.14) randomly assigned to intervention (n = 19) and comparison (n = 19) groups. The results demonstrated that the interaction effects between the group and time were significant for communication and empathy skills. The intervention program prevented declines in empathy skills among program participants, while empathy skills decreased in the comparison group. The participants also improved their communication skills, while comparison group members' communication skills declined over time. Considering the limited number of intervention programs discussed in the literature, this study provides preliminary support for the literature on intervention programs.