Gender differences in moral development during early adolescence: The contribution of sex-related variations in maturation

Abstract

Debates over possible gender differences in moral development have not considered the maturational issue that, during early adolescence, girls are generally about two years ahead of boys in cerebral cortical and social-cognitive functioning. To support Gilligan’s thesis that Kohlberg’s model is biased toward males, less mature boys would need only to score as well in level of moral development as more mature girls. In this study, which included 190 early adolescent boys and girls, the mean level of moral development among girls was significantly higher than among boys. Analyses indicated that this pattern was maintained even after taking into consideration parents’ moral stage, social class, ethnicity, and other background differences. Findings are consistent with the thesis that there are no inherent sex differences in moral reasoning development.