The Structure of Responsibility of Preschool and Primary School Age Children

The paper deals with the structure of responsibility in preschool and primary school children and its specific features. Responsibility is understood as a personality trait which is reflected in the awareness and emotional experience of the need to do a job that is significant to everybody as well as in the readiness to realize responsible behavior. The main objective of the study is to determine age-related differences (the level of formation of responsibility), as well as manifestations of the behavioral, emotional and cognitive components of responsibility in comparable age groups. The paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of preschoolers' and primary school children's notions about responsibility. The results show that the age period in question is sensitive to the formation of responsibility as a personality trait.