Development of Moral Judgment and Its Relation to Family Environmental Factors in Indian and American Families

Abstract

PARIKH, BINDU. Development of Moral Judgment and Its Relation to Family Environmental Factors in Indian and American Families. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1980, 51, 1030-1039. The present research is a study of (a) the rate of development of moral judgment in a sample of urban upper-middle-class Indian children, adolescents, and parents; and (b) the relationship of family environmental factors to moral judgment development. The results are compared with similar studies of American families. The assumptions underlying the study are based on Kohlberg's theory of moral judgment development. The results of the study support Kohlberg's claim of cross-cultural universality of sequences and stages. Some differences in the rate of development of Indian and American parents are observed, although the size of the sample and possible variation in the scoring methods do not allow for final conclusions. Family influences favorable for the American samples are also found to be so for the Indian sample in the 15-16-year age group but not for the 12-13-year age group, which nonetheless indicates that reciprocity in parent-child relationships is a favorable condition for the moral judgment development of the children of urban upper-middle-class families in both cultures.