An Objective Measure of Adolescents' Prosocial Moral Reasoning

Abstract

Due to limitations and concerns regarding traditional interview measures of moral reasoning, a new objective measure of prosocial moral reasoning was developed to facilitate assessment of adolescents' moral reasoning. Several psychometric properties of the new measure were examined including test-retest reliability and convergent, concurrent, and discriminant validity. Sixty-four seventh and tenth graders were administered a self-report measure of prosocial moral reasoning (PROM) and measures of school aptitude, verbal skills, perspective taking, sympathy, and personal distress. Adolescents, 2 weeks later, were either re-administered the PROM or administered an interview measure of prosocial moral reasoning. In general, the psychometric analyses suggested that the PROM was sufficiently reliable and valid for use with adolescents. In addition, research on the development and correlates of adolescents' prosocial moral reasoning were discussed.