Moral Judgments in Parochial and Public School Second-Graders

Abstract

This study compared the moral judgments of 22 parochial school second-graders and 20 public school children of similar age and intelligence. The children were read 12 moral judgment stories of either positive consequence and negative intention or negative intention and positive consequence. Story content included either damage to personal property, damage to the property of others, or damage to persons. Analysis of variance conducted on ratings of story characters showed that public and parochial school children differed in their judgments as a function of story content. In general, parochial students made more intention-based judgments than did public school children. This tendency was especially evident in stories involving damage to persons with negative outcomes and with negative intent and positive consequence stories involving personal property damage and damage to the property of others. The data indicate that both environmental influences and the situational story context influence moral judgments. It is suggested that the group cohesiveness of the parochial school may account for the greater use of intention by these children.