| Sumario: | Two experiments were conducted to examine middle- and lower-class northeastern Brazilian children's concepts of personal choice and social regulation. Results of the first experiment revealed that children across classes distinguished between morality and convention in terms of rule contingency and act generalizability criteria. However, children from the lower class were less likely to view conventions as rule contingent and more likely to generalize conventional acts. Results of the second experiment revealed that across social classes, children maintain conceptions of a personal domain of actions. Prudential issues were seen as subject to parental authority. Middle-class children were more likely to treat personal issues as matters of choice and personal discretion. Lower-class children's tendencies to view actions as personal increased with age, and class differences disappeared by adolescence.
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