Longitudinal associations between lie evaluations and frequency: The moderating role of age

Abstract

AbstractWhile previous studies have demonstrated correlations between children and adolescents’ evaluations of lies and lie‐telling behaviors, the temporal order of these associations over time and changes across this developmental period remain unexamined. The current study examined longitudinal associations among children and adolescents’ (N = 1128; Mage = 11.54, SD = 1.68, 49.80% male, and 83.6% white) evaluations of lies to parents for autonomy and lie‐telling frequency to parents and friends. Autoregressive cross‐lagged analysis revealed longitudinal associations moderated by age. Among children, evaluations of lies predicted greater lie‐telling rates over time. Conversely, among adolescents, lie‐telling frequency predicted lie evaluations over time, and evaluations predicted lying to parents over time. These results demonstrate a novel developmental pattern of the associations between moral evaluations of lies and lie‐telling.Research Highlights Children and adolescents’ evaluations of lie‐telling and lie‐telling frequency were associated longitudinally, but the direction of this association was moderated by age. Among children, more positive lie evaluations predicted greater lie‐telling to parents and friends over time. Among adolescents, more positive lie evaluations predicted lying more often to parents over time; lying more to parents and friends predicted more positive evaluations over time. These findings suggest a novel developmental pattern regarding the temporal order of the association between evaluations of lie‐telling and lie‐telling frequency.