Revised Socialization of Lying Questionnaire: a reflection of parent moral identity?

Abstract

The current study provides a validated, revised Socialization of Lying Questionnaire (Revised-SoL) and assesses how parent socialization of lying relates to parents’ moral identity more broadly. Four factors were empirically validated: (1) the direct socialization of honesty; (2) indirect socialization via parents’ modeling of lying behavior; (3) parents’ discipline of lying and reinforcement of honesty; and (4) parents’ perceptions of their child’s problematic lying. We found that parents direct and indirect socialization of honesty was associated with having a higher (parent) internalized moral identity and identity of themselves as an honest person. Overall, our results suggest that parents’ own methods for socializing their children about lying and honesty are interconnected with their own moral self-identities and that the revised-SoL is a good measure for capturing both direct and indirect approaches for socializing children about lying and honesty.