The structure and correlates of a measure of prosocial moral reasoning in adolescents from Spain

Abstract

The study was designed to examine the structure and correlates of a measure of prosocial moral reasoning in a sample of young and middle-aged adolescents. Participants were 1,556 students (53% male, M _age = 13.12 years, SD = 0.87) from Valencia, Spain, who completed paper-and-pencil measures of prosocial moral reasoning (PROM), empathy, prosocial behaviours, and aggression. As expected, a series of confirmatory factor and structural equation modelling analyses revealed a four-factor solution of the PROM to have the best fit (as compared to alternative models) among Spanish youth (across gender and grade). Moreover, higher level and other-oriented forms of prosocial moral reasoning were generally positively related to empathy and prosocial behaviours, and negatively related to aggression. In contrast, generally, lower level and self-focused modes of prosocial moral reasoning were negatively related to such prosocial tendencies, and positively related to aggression. Discussion focuses on the usefulness of the PROM, its relations to theoretically relevant correlates, and its usefulness to study the development and universality of prosocial moral development.

Keywords:

• Morality
• Prosocial behaviours
• Aggression
• Empathy
• Culture

Acknowledgements

Funding support was provided by an I+D Projects for Research Teams of Excellence, PROMETEO Program (Reference: PROMETEO/2011/2009), Department of Education, Generalitat Valenciana to MVM.

The authors greatly appreciate the assistance of Elisabeth Malonda Vidal and the cooperation of the educational centres in Valencia.