The effect of imposition on children making, granting and refusing requests

Through the use of social acts (e.g., excuses, justifications and pauses) adults preserve relationships, ‘smooth the waters’ and signal the potential inconvenience of an upcoming request. Claims have been made that adults use more social acts when making requests of high versus low imposition. When granting requests, adults are generally brief, whereas refusing often involves excuses, justifications, ‘er’s’, ‘um’s’ and apologies, etc. which serve to soften the blow of the refusal. To explore whether children will perform in this differential manner typical of adults, 114 children aged 5 – 13 years made and responded to requests of varying imposition. Analysis of transcripts showed that children used more total acts and more different acts when making high versus low imposition requests and when refusing requests versus granting requests. Older children used more acts and more different acts than younger children.