Home Environment, Moral Judgement, and Moral Behavior in Childhood

아동의 가정환경과 도덕적 판단능력 및 도덕적 행동과의 관계

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the psychological/physical home environment, and children's moral judgement and moral behaviors. The subjects for this study were a normal group of 58 children and a delinquent group of 54 children. The normal children were selected from elementary and middle schools in Taegu city, and the delinquent children were from two juvenile prisons in the Taegu area. Children's moral judgement scores were measured by levels of moral judgement as conceptualized by Kohlberg. The major findings of this study were that: 1) There were significant differences between the normal and delinquent groups on democratic conduct, permissive attitude, degree of intimacy between parent and child, and materialism orientation. 2) There were significant differences between the normal and delinquent group on life or death of real parent, living with parents, separation, bereavement or divorce, mother's age, father's educational level, and father's occupational level. 3) There were significant differences between the normal and delinquent group on children's moral judgement scales. 4) Father's educational level was the best index for predicting psychological and physical home environment variables and differences between normal and delinquent children on level of moral judgement.