Socialization of Moral Judgments and Reasoning

This chapter examines the socialization of moral judgments and reasoning through the lens of social domain theory, a constructivist approach to children’s social and moral development. Disciplinary practices, parent-child conversations, and warm, supportive parent-child relationships are each important for children’s developing understanding of moral norms. Parent-child interactions also facilitate children’s and adolescents’ autonomy development, which serves as a foundation for their conceptualization of rights and civil liberties. In addition, peer relationships have both positive and negative implications for children’s and adolescents’ moral development. We highlight the limitations of past research and the need for longitudinal studies using contemporary, theoretically grounded measures, and we conclude by suggesting avenues for future study.