Child and Adolescent Conceptions of the Personal, Social, and Moral Domains:

Implications for Tolerance and Education

Jennifer Wright, Christin Covello, & Chelsie Hall
Department of Psychology -- University of Wyoming

Abstract

Is children’s and adolescents’ tolerance for diversity influenced by whether they believe the dissimilarity to be personal, social, or moral? Research suggests that 4th - 12th graders are significantly more accepting of different beliefs that involve personal issues and least accepting of those that involve moral issues, with social falling between. Children make clear distinctions between all three domains; for adolescents the primary distinction is between the moral and non-moral. Both children and adolescents are sensitive to context. Children are more accepting of different beliefs in other children than they are in their parents, teachers, or best friends. Adolescents are least accepting of different beliefs in their parents and the most accepting of them in other teenagers, with their tolerance for different beliefs in their teachers and best friends falling between. Children are significantly less tolerant of different beliefs across all three domains and yet demonstrate significantly more variation in tolerance than adolescents between the domains. Children’s tolerance levels are also significantly less context-sensitive than those of adolescents. Finally, adolescents are significantly more willing to interact with/help dissimilar others when they disagree about a non-moral rather than a moral issue. Gender differences were also discovered: adolescent girls are less tolerant than boys.

Introduction

According to domain theory (Turiel, 1983) social knowledge is composed of three distinct cognitive domains: the personal, social/conventional, and moral.

•People judge issues differently depending upon which domain they locate them in because each domain involves a different “locus of authority”. The individual is the authority in the personal domain, social entities are in the social domain, whereas the moral domain is grounded by objective, universal truths.

•By 3-4 years old children are sensitive to these domains and readily make distinctions between social and moral transgressions (Tisak, 1995), as well as recognizing some issues as being for individuals to decide for themselves (Nucci & Turiel, 2000).

If domain theory is correct, then we should expect domain classification to predict tolerance of diversity. And, indeed, research with college students (Wright & Cullum, 2007) has demonstrated that it does:

•Participants are significantly more tolerant of dissimilar attitudes/beliefs for issues they classified as personal then in issues they classified as moral (with issues classified as social falling significantly between).

•Participants are also more willing to interact with/help dissimilar others when they differed with respect to personal or social, rather than moral, beliefs. Participants express low levels of tolerance for and strong reluctance to interact with/help those who differed with respect to their moral beliefs.

•Participants are also significantly less comfortable with dissimilar attitudes/beliefs of any sort in intimate than in non-intimate contexts. They are the least willing to date and the most willing to live in the same town as dissimilar others, regardless of the nature of the dissimilarity.

Is the tolerance of children and/or adolescents likewise influenced by domain classification? That is what we wanted to find out.

Methods

Participants: 41 4th & 6th grade children (16 males) and 45 8th & 12th grade adolescents (26 males).

Materials: Child survey included questions on 30 issues; Adolescent survey included questions on 40 issues.

Procedure: Children and adolescents were asked to classify each issue into the personal, social, or moral domain and then asked how okay it would be for their teachers, their parents, their best friend, and other children/teenagers to believe differently. In addition, adolescents were asked how willing they would be to hang out with, give a ride home to, and turn in a lost assignment found in the hall for another teenager that believed differently than them about each issue.

Selected participants were also asked post-survey questions about their classifications.

Results

Both domain classification and context predicted overall tolerance levels:

Domain classification: F(2,170) = 99.7, p < .001, η2 =.54

  • Participants were the least tolerant of different beliefs for moral issues and most tolerant of different beliefs for personal issues, with social falling significantly in between: ts(85) = 5.1 & 8.8, ps < .001.

Context: F(3,255) = 30.0,p < .001 η2 = .26

  • Participants were least tolerant of different beliefs in their parents and most tolerant of different beliefs in other kids, with different beliefs in their teachers and best friends falling significantly in between (with no significant difference between them): ts(85) = 4.3 to 6.1, ps <.001.

Tolerance by domain classification varied between age groups (child vs. adolescent):

Domain Classification x Age Group: F(2,168) = 7.1, p = .001 η2 = .08

  • Children show significant differences between all three (personal, social, moral) domains: t s(40) = 5.1 & 5.3,ps < .001.

For adolescents the primary distinction is between the non-moral (personal/social) and moral: ts(44) = 1.9 & 7.5, ps .061, p<.001.

  • Children are significantly less tolerant of different beliefs across all three domains and yet demonstrate significantly more variation in tolerance than adolescents between the domains: Fs(1,84) = 9.1 to 39.1, ps = .003 to <.001, η2 = .10 to .32.

Tolerance by context varied between age groups (child vs. adolescent):

Context x Age Group: F(3,252) = 13.1, p = .001 η2 = .14

  • Children are more accepting of different beliefs in other children than they are in their parents, teachers, or best friends: ts(40) = .9 (ns) to 2.4 (.021).
  • Adolescents are least accepting of different beliefs in their parents and the most accepting of them in other teenagers, with their tolerance for different beliefs in their teachers and best friends falling between: ts(44) = 1.8 (.073) to 4.9 (<.001).
  • Children’s tolerance levels are also significantly lower across all contexts and demonstrate less context-sensitivity than those of adolescents: Fs(1,84) = 8.6 to 73.0, ps = .004 to < .001, η2 = .09 to .47.

Both domain classification(non-moral vs moral) and engagement type predict willingness to interact with/help in adolescents:

Domain classification:F(1,44) = 68.9, p < .001 η2 = .61

Engagement type: F(2,88) = 23.5, p < .001 η2 = .35

DC x Engage: F(2,88) = 10.5, p < .001 η2 = .19

  • Adolescents are significantly more willing to interact with/help dissimilar others, regardless of the type of engagement, when they disagree about a non-moral rather than a moral issue:
  • Adolescents were most willing to turn in a lost homework assignment for and least willing to “hang out” with a teenager with different beliefs (with willingness to give a ride home falling significantly between): ts(44) = 5.9 to 8.9, ps < .001.
  • The difference in willingness to interact/help by engagement type increased when the different belief was a moral one.

Tolerance by domain classification varied between gender (for adolescents only):

Domain Classification x Gender: F(2,86) = 4.1, p =.02 η2 = .09

  • Adolescent females were significantly less tolerant of different moral beliefs (but not personal or social) than adolescent males: Fs(1,43) = 1.2 to 7.8, ps = ns to .008.

Discussion

Both children and adolescents display the same general response to diversity that adults do (Wright & Cullum, 2007): to the extent that the different beliefs they encounter involve moral issues, they are significantly less tolerant of the diversity than when they involve personal or social issues. Nonetheless, consistent with previous research (e.g., Wainryb et al., 2004),children exhibit a higher level of intolerance across all domains than adolescents.

Children and adolescents also react differently to different beliefs encountered in different contexts: both were the least willing to accept different beliefs in their parents, regardless of the type of belief, and the most willing to accept different beliefs in other kids. Children are less context sensitive than adolescents.

Adolescents are significantly more willing to interact with and help other students who held different beliefs than them, regardless of the type of engagement, when the disagreement was about a non-moral (personal or social) rather than a moral issue.

Adolescent females were generally less tolerant than adolescent males.

Adolescent / Child
Issue / P / S / M / P / S / M
1 / beat up kids / 33.3 / 16.7 / 50.0 / 4.7 / 18.6 / 76.7
2 / vegetarianism / 77.1 / 10.4 / 12.5 / 88.6 / 4.5 / 6.9
3 / recycle / 45.8 / 31.3 / 22.9 / 45.5 / 18.2 / 36.3
4 / hurt animals / 14.6 / 10.4 / 75.0 / 4.5 / 95.5
5 / eat w/ hands / 77.1 / 14.6 / 8.3 / 47.7 / 27.3 / 25.0
6 / teachers names / 53.2 / 36.2 / 10.6 / 38.6 / 36.4 / 25.0
7 / clean rooms / 81.3 / 6.2 / 12.5 / 60.5 / 25.5 / 14.0
8 / play sports / 81.2 / 4.2 / 14.6 / 72.1 / 11.6 / 16.3
9 / shoes to school / 41.7 / 25.0 / 33.3 / 23.3 / 37.2 / 39.5
10 / bdays / 87.4 / 6.3 / 6.3 / 90.9 / 4.5 / 4.6
11 / nice to unpop / 31.9 / 10.6 / 57.5 / 15.9 / 18.2 / 65.9
12 / eat candy / 83.3 / 10.4 / 6.3 / 79.5 / 18.2 / 2.3
13 / stealing / 2.0 / 18.8 / 79.2 / 22.7 / 77.3
14 / homework / 70.8 / 12.5 / 16.7 / 31.8 / 34.1 / 34.1
15 / violent video / 67.4 / 15.2 / 17.4 / 52.3 / 29.5 / 18.2
16 / boys > girsl / 16.7 / 4.1 / 79.2 / 20.5 / 6.8 / 72.7
17 / reduce pollution / 14.6 / 18.8 / 66.6 / 2.3 / 18.2 / 79.5
18 / shows w/ fighting / 70.8 / 16.7 / 12.5 / 56.8 / 29.5 / 13.7
19 / punishment / 29.2 / 8.3 / 62.5 / 52.3 / 13.6 / 34.1
20 / smoking / 43.8 / 16.7 / 39.5 / 29.5 / 13.6 / 56.9
21 / sharing w/ others / 58.3 / 6.3 / 35.4 / 40.9 / 13.6 / 45.5
22 / animals experiments / 14.6 / 39.6 / 45.8 / 6.8 / 36.4 / 56.8
23 / kind to strangers / 56.3 / 2.1 / 41.6 / 31.8 / 11.4 / 56.8
24 / swear words / 75.0 / 16.7 / 8.3 / 22.7 / 20.5 / 56.8
25 / wash bodies / 51.1 / 10.6 / 38.3 / 52.3 / 20.5 / 27.2
26 / war / 27.1 / 27.1 / 45.8 / 22.7 / 13.6 / 63.7
27 / lying / 39.6 / 8.3 / 52.1 / 22.7 / 6.8 / 70.5
28 / tattoos / 83.3 / 12.5 / 4.2 / 85.4 / 9.8 / 4.8
29 / guns/weapons / 50.0 / 37.5 / 12.5 / 39.0 / 34.1 / 26.9
30 / burping / 66.7 / 8.3 / 25.0 / 48.8 / 24.4 / 26.8
31 / exercise / 83.3 / 10.4 / 6.3
32 / rec. drugs / 31.3 / 16.7 / 52.0
33 / cheating on exams / 27.1 / 14.6 / 58.3
34 / hv metal music / 91.7 / 6.3 / 2.0
35 / protect animals / 25.0 / 31.3 / 42.7
36 / go to school / 27.1 / 33.3 / 39.6
37 / love children / 12.5 / 12.5 / 75.0
38 / believe in god / 91.7 / 0.0 / 8.3
39 / make money / 89.6 / 2.1 / 8.3
40 / eat pets / 20.8 / 16.7 / 62.5