Prosocial Moral Judgment and Behavior in Children

In the past, researchers generally have examined the issue of whether moral behavior is related to moral judgment, not under which conditions the two are associated. In the present research, a potential mediator of the relation between prosocial behavior and moral reasoning (cost of the prosocial behavior) was examined. Preschoolers and third graders were given opportunities to donate both costly and less costly commodities and could assist another at a cost or little cost to the self. Moreover, prosocial moral judgment was assessed. High -and low-cost donating were not significantly related; high-cost helping was significantly correlated with only low-cost donating for older children, and with high-cost donating for preschoolers. High-cost, but not low-cost, donating was related to developmentally mature moral judgment. Similarly, low-cost helping was unrelated to reasoning; high-cost helping was related to level of moral judgment for preschoolers only. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the relation between moral reasoning and behavior.