Used a pretest/post-test control group design involving 44 female adolescent subjects to determine whether Moral Stage 3 subjects who have attained early basic formal operations are more susceptible to attempts to stimulate moral development than Stage 3 subjects who have attained only beginning formal operations and lack the cognitive…

Examined the relation between part-time employment and adolescent development. Long work hours were associated with lower performance in school, greater psychological and somatic distress, drug and alcohol use, delinquency, and autonomy from parents. Workers do not have any advantages over nonworkers in self-reliance, work orientation, or…

Investigates whether several factors (intelligence, political liberalism, and altruistic behavior) previously found to be related to prohibition moral reasoning (about issues involving laws, rules, authorities, and formal obligations) are also associated with level of prosocial moral reasoning. Students in grades 9, 11, and 12 were tested.…

Results showed that when information about a target individual was presented in two internally consistent blocks which were mutually contradictory, impressions produced by concrete operational adolescents contained a significantly greater proportion of evaluative statements in the same evaluative direction as the first block of information…

This descriptive study examined the nature of stories involving a moral conflict written by seventh, ninth, and twelfth graders. (Author/JMB)

Examined the development of reasoning about prosocial moral dilemmas in 125 elementary and high school students. Also attempted to determine the relationship of structure of prosocial moral judgment to story solution. (JMB)

Based on questionnaire responses, 139 ninth and twelfth graders were divided into low and high drug use groups. High use subjects viewed drug use as less harmful than did low use subjects and were less likely to view parents or the law as authorities concerning drug use. (BC)

A sample of seventh, ninth, and eleventh graders generated self-descriptors for the role of the self in the classroom, with friends, with parents, and in romantic relationships. Findings revealed that the self becomes increasingly differentiated into role-related multiple selves with age. (GLR)

Studied high school and university students' use of mental representations in reasoning, and the developmental progression of their reasoning with concrete and abstract content. Reasoning was more difficult with abstract content. Abstract problems followed by concrete ones led to reduced concrete problem performance for high schoolers but not for…

Through written responses to a questionnaire, adolescents' perceptions of discussions with parents and friends were examined with reference to academic/vocational, social/ethical, family, and peer domains. Findings are discussed in terms of differences in procedures of social construction between parents' and friends' socializing influences.…

Investigated sex differences in mathematical and spatial (visual-analytic) skills in groups of Hispanic, Black, and White students prior to and during adolescence. (JMB)

In a sample of 64 students (grades 8 and 11, undergraduate, and graduate), this study assesses evaluation and understanding of moral-stage-prototypic statements equated for level of language. Results support the hierarchical nature of moral stages despite the equating of language level. (Author/RH)