Parent and peer contexts for children's moral reasoning development

This study addressed the polarization among theoretical perspectives in mor al psychology regarding the relative significance of parents and peers in c hildren's developing moral maturity. The sample was composed of 60 target c hildren from late childhood and midadolescence, 60 parents, and 60 friends who participated in parent/child and friend/child dyadic discussions of a s eries of moral conflicts. The quality of parents' and friends' verbal inter actions, ego functioning, and level of moral reasoning in these discussions was used to predict the rate of children's moral reasoning development ove r a 4-year longitudinal interval. Results revealed that interactions with b oth parents and peers were predictive of children's development but that th ese two types of relationships influence development in rather different wa ys. Implications of the findings for the understanding of these socializati on agents' roles in moral development are discussed.