This study examined whether, for bullying perpetrators, admitting to their behavior was associated with specific psychosocial characteristics, and whether it predicted decreases in bullying behavior and a higher responsiveness to a successful anti-bullying program after 9 months of implementation. It also investigated whether participation in an…

The current study aimed to investigate the cultural differences in the developmental origins of children's intent-based moral judgment and moral behavior in the context of indirect reciprocity. To this end, we compared how German and Chinese children interpret and react to antisocial and prosocial interactions between puppets. An actor puppet…

Experiencing the moral emotions of gratitude and moral elevation are responses to witnessing virtuous deeds of others. Both emotions have been found to share similar features and behavioral consequences, including the stimulation of personal development. The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions indicates that gratitude and elevation…

Developmental scholars assert that parents are important in fostering prosocial behaviors in adolescents, but longitudinal investigations on this topic are limited. Participants consisted of 372 boys and 358 girls with a mean age of 10.84 years (SD = 1.57) at Wave 1 from a mostly middle class community in Spain. Across three successive years,…

Examines the validity of the preconventional level of moral reasoning as conceptualized by Kohlberg in 8 subjects of 10-15 years. Results showed that a substantial number of arguments could not be matched to criterion judgments in the standard scoring manual. (RJC)

Upper-middle-class and working-class children (N=249) were sampled to examine the relationship between maternal disciplinary practices and the development of moral judgment. Results indicated only upper-middle-class girls' moral development was significantly correlated with maternal disciplinary practices. (Author/DB)

Describes the equity and cognitive developmental theories of children's concepts of distributive justice and examines a methodological problem which may have influenced previous findings. Also reports a study of the relations between hypothetical arguments, real-life arguments, and real-life division behaviors of 84 children aged four to seven…

A brief history of Chinese developmental psychology is given, and current main research projects are highlighted. (Author/MP)

Over the past 20 years, care reasoning has been increasingly recognised as an important aspect of moral development. Skoe has developed an interview measure of levels of care reasoning about the needs of self and other in relationships, the Ethic of Care Interview or ECI. In the present longitudinal research, we investigated developmental changes…

The Moral Dilemmas Test was administered to 1,057 Swedish boys and girls in four different grades (4, 5, 6 and 7) to examine the effects of social pressure on children. (MP)