An understanding of harm is central to social and cognitive development, but harm largely has been conceptualized as physical damage or injury. Less research focuses on children's judgments of harm to others' internal well-being (emotional harms). We asked 5- to 10-year-old children (N = 456, 50% girls, 50% boys; primarily tested in Central New…

Aggression toward peers who are perceived as weaker or different is a widespread problem for middle school students including those attending Catholic middle schools. Middle school students' normative beliefs about the acceptability of various types of aggressive behavior influences their own potential involvement in bullying. Therefore, how…

This paper reports young (3-5 year-olds') children's cognitive and affective understanding of actual moral (harm to others) and prudential (harm to self) transgressions in the family, as reported by the parent, but in a way that provides the child the opportunity to reflect on and reason about the actual events. A total of 38 parent-child dyads…

A paucity of literature exists on the processes of character development within diverse contexts. In this article, the authors use the United States Military Academy at West Point (USMA) as a sample case for understanding character development processes within an institution of higher education. The authors present a discussion of relational…

After a spate of business ethics crises over the past two decades, management educators were put on notice: considerably more was needed to improve the ethical grounding of our graduating students. Taking stock of our progress, we contend that management education remains well short of achieving this charge and cannot be content with the state of…

This article contains four parts. It begins with a description of the Child Development Project, a research project aimed at discovering ways to integrate a focus on students' social and moral development in elementary schools. Then we describe the project's mixed results in helping teachers successfully apply its approach to classroom management,…

In my book "For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision of Creation Care" (2001, rev edn 2010) I develop a set of ecological virtues from a Christian perspective. Although there are now monographs, e.g. "Character and Environment: A Virtue-Oriented Approach to Environmental Ethics" (2007), and anthologies, e.g.…

This research aims to compare the social studies curricula of Thailand and New York State, USA, analyze their similarities and differences, and propose guidelines for improving the Thai social studies curriculum. The study employed a qualitative research methodology, using documentary analysis of the Thai Basic Education Core Curriculum B.E. 2551…

Research about the structure of character has largely assessed purported universal attributes. However, character develops within specific social, cultural and institutional contexts. As part of the first wave of a longitudinal study (Project Arete) of character development among cadets at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point,…

The United States Military Academy at West Point develops cadets into "leaders of character" who will become Army officers. This focus on character presents an opportunity for the prevention of sexual violence through an emphasis on military values. Using constructivist grounded theory, this study examined how cadets experience their own…

Service-learning has a rich history in higher education, with a multitude of studies indicating positive learning, community engagement, and moral development outcomes of student participants. The majority of the research findings, however, have represented four-year colleges. And while there are limited outcome studies of service-learning in…

Given the way that student, teacher, principal, and school testing and accountability measures are currently leaning, it is understandable why a child's moral development sometimes gets less attention than her aptitude in algebra. Yet even with nearly all major accountability incentives heaped upon the tests in math and English, there are still…

Games and other forms of play are used in today's libraries to attract underserved patrons, to introduce patrons to other library resources and services, and to facilitate engagement between library patrons. While many perceive gaming as a new library service, gaming services have been part of librarianship since the nineteenth century through…

In 1837, Margaret Prior became the first female missionary for the American Female Moral Reform Society. She traveled throughout the poorest neighborhoods in New York City--entering barrooms, brothels, and sickrooms. Based on an analysis of Prior's missionary reports, published in the society's periodical and included in her memoir, this essay…

Theodore Roosevelt said, "To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society." With this quote in mind, this paper describes three ethical issues in the discipline area of accounting. The format of the paper is to first provide background information on the ethical question or scenario then to provide a…