The Importance Of Moral Socialization

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Family is considered a fundamental unit of a society and is thus one of the significant agents of moral socialization. Moral socialization research suggests that children’s development of understanding of moral world happens in part through interactions and shared activities with their family members (Thompson & Winer, 2014; Nucci, 2014).

Morality is often stated to have three fundamental components namely, the affective, which involves moral emotions like shame and guilt. The cognitive, which involves how children judge right and wrong and which is also known as moral reasoning. Finally, the behavioural component involves actions such as resisting temptations or inhibiting moral transgressions.

A class of moral socialization techniques that is of significance in the socialization literature is disciplinary techniques employed by parents. These involve practices utilised by parents to inhibit or put off morally unacceptable thoughts, feelings and behaviour and inculcate moral standards and values (Brody, 1982).

Only a handful of studies have attempted to explain the relationship between parental socialization practices and moral judgement development. Two important studies in this regard are one done by Holstein and other by Shoffeitt. They have identified various factors that shape moral judgement development in children:

● Parental moral judgement development

● Degree of encouragement utilised by the parents

● Parental use of reasoning and discussion