When do Children form Views about Origins, and what Factors Affect the Formation of These Views?

Whether and when naturalistic or supernaturalistic explanations of the origins of sun and earth, humans, life and species change with development was explored in a questionnaire and interviews with 32 first graders and 32 second graders, and in a questionnaire with 34 third graders, 32 sixth graders and 38 eighth graders. Participants were also asked about factors affecting their explanations in the questionnaires. Even the first and second graders could consistently provide supernaturalistic or naturalistic explanations on both the origins of sun and earth, and of humans. There was an age-related developmental shift from supernaturalistic to naturalistic explanation. As for origins of species, most of the first and second graders held the spontaneous generationist explanation, and after the third grade their views divided into evolutionist and creationist explanations. Students' explanations of species origins were established by the sixth grade through a transitional stage in the third grade. At the first and second grade levels, books and the children's own reasoning mainly influenced the views of origins, whereas parents and school were not perceived as being important. For the third graders and higher-grade levels, several factors, including parents and religion, were perceived as being important. These results show that explanations of origins start to develop earlier than or during the first grade, and are established by the sixth grade; moreover, the formation of these views is affected by several factors in addition to development.