This study investigated the consistency of the finding that family cohesion
and adaptability are significant predictors of adolescent moral thought. T
o test this, 175 adolescents from a metropolitan population (Sample 1) and
146 from an urban fringe population (Sample 2) were administered White's (1
997) revised Moral Authority Scale, Olson et al.'s (1992) Family Adaptabili
ty and Cohesion Evaluation Scale, and a family demographic questionnaire. A
linear relation between family cohesion and family and equality sources of
moral authority was found in both samples. However, the significant linear
relation between family adaptability and total source influence score foun
d in Sample 1 was not found in Sample 2. This finding might result from the
heterogeneity of sociocultural factors across the samples; post hoc analys
es suggested that sociocultural factors might play an important moderating
role in the relation between family adaptability and adolescent moral thoug
ht.