The study determined that young children’s social dominance increased with age. A significant difference in social dominance was evident between age groups but not between sexes. Children’s social dominance was correlated with negative parenting and children’s moral behaviors. In parenting, six-year-old children’s social dominance was correlated with the deprivation of rights. Five-year-old children’s social dominance was correlated with corporal punishment parenting. Children’s moral behaviors improved along with the age increase and were highly correlated with social dominance. After controlling for the age difference, moral behaviors and social dominance were still correlated.

As evident in the observation of various age groups’ resource control behaviors, the highly social dominant children exhibited stronger resource control strategies. Most of them were bistrategic controllers and prosocial controllers. The use of the prosocial control strategy increased along with age but the coercive control strategy did not. The top two prosocial control strategies the children employed were giving suggestions and offering objects, and the least used strategy was verbally misleading a partner. The top two coercive control strategies the children employed were taking objects directly and thwarting a partner, and the least used strategy was physical aggressiveness. Highly dominant children tend to use the prosocial control strategy when interacting with other highly dominant children. However, when interacting with low-dominance children, they tend to use the coercive control strategy.

The study not only improved our understanding in young children’s social dominance, but also provides a reference for parents and educators.