The relationship between moral reasoning and perceptions of family functioning during adolescence

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focused on the moral development of adolescents, their perceptions of theirfamilies' functioning in terms of various dimensions and the relationship between theseperceptions and adolescents' levels of moral development. The research group comprised of268 learners attending an Afrikaans secondary school. All the participants had Afrikaans astheir first language and they were catergorised into two age cohorts; namely the 13/14-yearoldsand the 17/18-year-olds. Gender was also represented in the study.The participants' levels of moral reasoning were measured by the Menings oor SosialeOptrede Vraelys (MOSOV), an unstandardised instrument that was formulated in terms ofKohlberg's cognitive-developmental theory of moral development. This instrument consistedof six moral dilemmas. According to Kohlberg's theory moral development is culturallyuniversal and follows an invariant sequence of stages. Furthermore, moral judgment takesplace on three levels, the pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional levels. Thepre-conventional level usually develops during childhood, most adolescents and adults willonly reach the conventional level and only a small percentage of adults will reach the postconventionallevel of moral reasoning. Participants' perceptions of family functioning weremeasured by the Family Functioning in Adolescence Questionnaire (FFAQ). Thisstandardized instrument measures family functioning in terms of six dimensions, namely:structure, affect, communication, behaviour control, value transmission and external systems.The results for moral reasoning levels indicated that the post-conventional level was the mostcommon level of moral reasoning used by participants (at least 56% of the time). Thistendency was represented for both age and gender variables within the research group. Thesecond most common level of moral reasoning was the conventional level. Only a smallrepresentation of the pre-conventional level occurred. The results were inconsistent withKohlberg's theory in terms of the proportional representation of the three levels. The results for participants' perceptions of their families' functioning indicated that theirperceptions of family functioning for each of the dimensions, was mainly average (meanstanine scores of 4-6 were obtained). Significant mean differences between the variousresearch groupings were also found for some of the dimensions.The results indicated that only two of the MOSOV's moral dilemmas correlated significantlywith some of the family functioning dimension mean scores. One was a positive correlationwhilst the other was a negative correlation. The general absence of significant relationshipsand the presence of a significantly negative correlation between moral reasoning levels andperceptions of family functioning was inconsistent with the literature that generally supportsthe view that a positive relationship exists between family functioning and moral developmentof the adolescent.A secondary focus was to measure the construct validity and reliability of the MOSOVinstrument for this study, since this was an unstandardised instrument. The results showedthat construct validity was present but reliability was not high enough. The results of thestudy therefore need to be treated with circumspect.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University