The main objective of this study was to explore the associations between character strengths and internalising and externalising problems. One thousand, one hundred thirty-eight adolescents, completed the 96-item VIA Inventory of Strengths for Youth, Youth Self Report, and Brief Symptom Inventory. Using latent class analysis, we extracted six…

This study compares facets of self-concept in gifted and non-identified Israeli adolescent students. The self-concept mean score profile of gifted vs. non-selected Israeli students was significantly different, with gifted students reporting higher mean levels of academic self-concept, but lower mean levels of social, personal, and physical…

The assumptions of Kohlberg, Turiel and Shweder regarding the features of moral reasoning were compared empirically. The moral reasoning of Finnish Evangelical Lutheran, Conservative Laestadian and non-religious adolescents was studied using Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview and Turiel Rule Transgression Interview methods. Religiosity and choice…

This study examined the relationships between parental inductions, sympathy, prosocial moral reasoning, and prosocial behaviors. A total of 207 early adolescents who self-identified as Mexican American (girls, n = 105; mean age = 10.91 years) and 108 who identified as European American (girls, n = 54; mean age = 11.07 years) completed measures of…

This study examined conceptions of the right to literacy in children, adolescents, and young adults living in rural Zulu villages in the mountains of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, as one instantiation of the development of conceptions of human rights in a developing world setting. Of human rights, literacy was chosen because of its familiarity to…

This study compared the moral development of solo juvenile male sex offenders (n = 20) and juvenile male non-offenders (n = 76), aged 13-19 years, from lower socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. The Moral Orientation Measure (MOM) was used to assess punishment- and victim-based moral orientation in sexual and non-sexual situations. Moral…

This study examined the moral reasoning of behaviorally disordered (BD) adolescents and the effect of an alternative educational setting upon the development of moral reasoning in students as a function of the number of years of exposure to this environment. Three groups of students were compared: 28 non-BD students from a traditional school…

Compared the moral development of delinquent and nondelinquent adolescents. Subjects (N=249) were administered a morality test for children including the following measures: resistance to temptation, moral stage, feelings after offense, judgment about the severity of punishment, and confession. In most measures of moral development, nondelinquents…

This study tested Piaget's claims that the transition from objective to subjective responsibility occurs by age 12 and that peer interaction facilitates the transition. Results indicated that the development of moral judgment continues into late adolescence. (Author/DB)

Middle school students (N=25) with exceptional educational needs were matched with regular students and assessed for their level of moral reasoning using the Objective Assessment of Moral Development. Results indicate exceptional students select types of reasoning typical of younger children, and become less like their peers with age. (RC)

Kohlberg's moral dilemmas were used to determine levels of moral reasoning among 115 adolescents representing urban middle class and lower class, kibbutz-born and Youth Aliyah (disadvantaged urban youth educated in the kibbutz), Moslem and Christian groups in Israel. (Author/DB)

Examined prosocial moral reasoning in Brazilian institutionalized delinquent, orphaned, and noninstitutionalized adolescents. Found that compared to nondelinquent adolescents, delinquent adolescents were less likely to prefer higher level, internalized types of prosocial moral reasoning and more likely to prefer lower levels of prosocial moral…

This study evaluated the stage structure of several quasi-simplex and non-simplex models of moral development in two domains of moral development in a British and a Chinese sample. Analyses were based on data reported by Sachs (1992): the Chinese sample consisted of 1,005 students from grade 9 to post-college, and the British sample consisted of…