This study contributes to an emerging body of research on the development of the human relationship with nature. One hundred and twenty participants from four grade levels (fifth, eighth, eleventh, and college) were interviewed about their environmental conceptions and values. Results showed that participants valued many aspects of nature and…

A total of 72 children from the second, fifth, and eighth grades participated in an investigation of relations between children's moral reasoning about actions considered obligatory and discretionary. Assessments were made of children's evaluations and corresponding justifications of stimuli depicting two helping situations in each of which one…

Examined the moral and ecological reasoning of second, fifth, and eighth graders regarding the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Found that children understood negative effects of the spill, cared that harm occurred to shoreline and marine life, and thought it violated a moral obligation. Fifth and eighth graders used a greater proportion of anthropocentric…

Examined children's obligatory moral judgments, which reflect a moral requirement, and discretionary moral judgments, which reflect moral worthiness but not a requirement. Children were interviewed in response to three stories that entailed positive and negative morality. Results showed that moral acts conceived of by children as being obligatory…

Two studies of the development of children's moral relationships with nature addressed such questions as: (1) What does it mean to say that we have an obligation not to harm the natural environment? (2) Does the natural environment feel pain? (3) Does it have rights? or (4) Is moral obligation an inappropriate construct by which to understand the…

Aware that children conceive of different types of trust, a study examined 60 children's conception of trust. The subjects comprised three age groups: 6-7 years old, 8-9 years old, and 10-11 years old. Each subject was interviewed on the basis of three stories. The stories depicted a hypothesized violation of trust in a moral context (lying),…

This study investigated children's moral and ecological conceptions and values about an actual, environmentally destructive accident, the large oil spill that occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1989. Sixty children from second, fifth, and eighth grades were interviewed on children's reasoning and understandings about the oil spill which…