The Development of Moral Reasoning in Belize, Trinidad-Tobago, and the U.S.A

Abstract

In this study, 118 high school students from Belize, 147 students from Trinidad-Tobago, and 106 students from the U.S.A. responded to background items and the Defining Issues Test (DIT) by Rest (1979a, 1979b). In all three samples, respondents favored conventional moral arguments (Stages 4 and 3) over principled arguments. Preconventional moral arguments were endorsed least often. The U.S.A. students received higher overall moral judgment scores (D-Scores) and prin cipled scores (P-Scores) than did students from the Carribean samples. The Trinidad students' D-Scores, but not their P-Scores, were higher than those of the Belize students. No differences were found between the three samples for Stage 2 scores. P-Scores and Stage 5A scores increased with age, while Stage 3 scores decreased with age in all three samples. D-Scores were positively correlated with age in Trinidad and in the U.S.A., but not in Belize. Stage 2 scores increased with age among Belizean females and Trinidadian males, but decreased with age among females from the U.S.A. Background items, including gender, were only rarely correlated with moral judgment scores. The usefulness of the DIT in English-speaking Carribean cultures receives moderate support from the data. It is postulated that the obtained cross-cultural moral judgment differences reflect corresponding cross-cultural differences in societal complexity and degrees of modernization.