Family education to enhance the moral atmosphere of the family and the moral development of adolescents.

Abstract

This study examined the effects of a course for families in democratic conflict resolution on the family's collective decision-making abilities and on the moral reasoning of adolescent participants. Sixteen couples and their adolescent children were divided into three groups: parents and their adolescents, parents only, and a control group. Both experimental groups met for 10 weekly 2V2hour sessions and received training in conflict resolution and the use of family meetings. Assessment was based on two self-report inventories, a behavioral role-play test, the Kohlberg Moral Judgment Interview, and an analysis of tape recordings of the family meetings. A 1-year follow-up assessment of the Kohlberg measure was also used. Parents in both experimental groups significantly increased their equalitarian attitudes toward family decision making. Furthermore, families in both groups significantly improved their effectiveness in collective decision making, the parent-adolescent group showing greater improvement than the parent group on most of the variables measured. Finally, the results suggested that adolescents who participated in the training significantly improved their scores in moral reasoning. This gain was maintained at followup.