The relationship between emotional development and moral development and the differential impact of three psychological interventions on children

Abstract

This study was designed to determine the impact of three psychological education interventions on the emotional development and moral development of children. Intervention One focused on feeling and feeling content. Intervention Two emphasized moral dilemmas and conflict resolution. Intervention Three, an interactive combination, stressed feelings, moral dilemmas, and conflict resolution. It was hypothesized that Intervention. Three would stimulate emotional and moral development more than would the other interventions. The sample consisted of 72 children randomly selected from a population of third and fourth graders enrolled in a public school located in a suburb of Boston. The students were randomly divided into three treatment groups. They were pretested and posttested using the Dupont Affective Development test and the Kohlberg Moral Judgment Interview. The results indicated that Group Three (subjected to Intervention Three) manifested statistically significant greater gains, F = 3.99, p < .05, than did Groups One and Two on the moral development measure. The three groups as a whole exhibited statistically significant gains, F = 14.46, p < .05, in emotional development. Further, there was a statistically significant relationship (tau = .29, p < .05) between emotional and moral development scores.