THE YOUTH CHARTER - TOWARDS THE FORMATION OF ADOLESCENT MORAL IDENTITY

Studies of adolescent conduct have found that both exemplary and antis ocial behaviour can be predicted by the manner in which adolescents in tegrate moral concerns into their theories and descriptions of self. T hese findings have led many developmentalists to conclude that moral i dentity-in contrast to moral judgement or reflection alone-plays a pow erful rob in mediating social conduct. Moreover, developmental theory and research have shown that identity formation during adolescence is a process of forging a coherent and systematic sense of self. Despite these well-founded conclusions, many moral education programmes fail t o engage a young person's sense of self, focus exclusively on judgemen t and reflection and make little or no attempt to establish coherence with other formative influences in a young person's life. The authors propose a new method, called ''the youth charter'', for promoting adol escent self-identification with a coherent set of moral standards.