Genetics, Parenting, and Moral Development

This chapter reviews findings regarding genetic and parental influences on moral development, and is organized according to three morally relevant components: cognitive, affective, and behavioral. The cognitive component refers to the conceptualization of right and wrong, and specifically moral reasoning and values. The affective component refers to feelings related to reactions to social situations and evaluations of chosen actions, focusing on emotions such as empathy, guilt, and pride. The behavioral component refers to the way individuals choose to behave, and specifically to prosocial behavior. We review relevant quantitative and molecular genetic designs, and particularly four neurobiological systems: the dopaminergic system, the oxytocinergic and vasopressinergic systems, and the serotonergic system, which have been found to be associated with moral development. In addition, we review parents’ influences on moral development, in the context of gene-environment interactions and correlations.

Domains of Socialization

This chapter surveys how behavior, affect, and cognition with respect to parenting and moral development have been conceptualized over time. It moves to a discussion of domains of socialization; that is, different contexts in which socialization occurs and where different mechanisms operate. Domains include protection where the child is experiencing negative affect, reciprocity where there is an exchange of favors, group participation or learning through observing others and engaging with them in positive action, guided learning where values are taught in the child’s zone of proximal development, and control where values are learned through discipline and reward. Research using narratives of young adults about value-learning events suggests that inhibition of antisocial behavior is more likely learned in the control domain, and prosocial behavior more likely in the group participation domain. Internalization of values, measured by narrative meaningfulness, is most likely in the group participation domain.

Parenting, Religion, and Moral Development

The purpose of this chapter is to review research on the role of religion in moral development within the family. We first present a model of the processes involved. Parent or family religiosity is the most distal predictor and affects moral development through its influence on parenting as well as child or adolescent religiosity. Additionally, parenting affects moral development directly, but also through its influence on child or adolescent religiosity. In other words, parent or family religiosity dynamically interconnects with parenting styles and practices, and with family relationships, and these in turn influence moral development directly as well as through child or adolescent religiosity. We also discuss how these processes might vary across faith traditions and cultures, and point to directions for future research.

Parenting and the Prosocial Behaviors of Children Across Cultures

A large body of empirical work has shown the role that parenting plays in the development of prosocial behaviors of children. Parenting styles (e.g., democratic versus authoritarian) and parenting practices (e.g., inductive discipline versus guilt-shame induction) in particular have been empirically linked to prosocial behaviors as well as numerous other well-being indicators in children. What is less understood is the role that culture and cultural context might play in the parenting-prosocial nexus. This chapter explores the contributions of culture comparative and in-depth cultural studies of parenting and children’s prosocial behaviors. These studies extend the range of variability of parenting dimensions and contexts as they relate to children’s prosocial outcomes – providing a means of testing the generalizability of theory in a wider range of settings, as well as in identifying facets of parenting and family life that may otherwise be neglected in current scholarship. Collectively, studies support traditional socialization theories and show how numerous parenting dimensions are linked to prosocial outcomes in children in several cultural communities. Nonetheless, emerging research suggests culturally embedded processes that impact upon the parenting and prosocial link - meriting closer attention for future scholarship.

Parenting, Neurobiology, and Prosocial Development

Children vary considerably in their propensities to orient toward, feel empathy for, and provide help to others in need or distress. This variability is rooted in a complex interplay between parenting factors, child neurobiology, and development. This chapter focuses on the two most common perspectives for studying and theorizing about this interplay. First, children’s experiences with compassionate and sensitive caregiving help to regulate and organize neurobiological systems related to affiliation, stress, and emotion in ways that prepare children to be prosocial. However, children also vary in their sensitivity to the effects of compassionate versus harsh caregiving. Thus, this chapter also considers how children’s neurobiology moderates the relation between parenting factors and prosocial development. These biopsychosocial perspectives expand our understanding of which children will be more or less prosocial as well as the mechanisms underlying these individual differences.

Moral Formation in the Family

Several lessons are drawn for future research on parenting and moral formation on the basis of an historical perspective on the moral development research program. One is that sociomoral formation is a special case of personality development that draws attention to the role of attachment, event representations, autobiographical memory, and temperament for organizing dispositional coherence around morality. A second is that research on moral development in the family will be increasingly informed by study of the moral self of infancy and on the importance of early life rearing experience, widely discussed in disparate literatures from object relations to epigenetics. A third line of research might focus on parenting characteristics “beyond parenting style” to include parents’ ideological and faith commitments, their mindsets with respect to children’s personality and capacity for change, and their own sense of generativity.

Early Moral Development and Attachment Theory

Attachment theory has provided a seminal orientation to understanding the early development of parent-child relationships and their enduring influence. Is attachment theory also a moral development theory? This chapter examines research on the association of secure attachment with morally relevant behaviors and dispositions. This review reveals that secure attachment is associated with greater social problem-solving skills and conflict avoidance with peers, enhanced emotion understanding and empathy, and more advanced conscience development, and there is limited evidence that it is also associated with prosocial behavior. Moreover, parental sensitivity and responsiveness are associated not only with secure attachment, but also with conscience development, empathy, prosocial motivation, and distress upon wrongdoing. In addition, findings suggest that secure attachment is associated with characteristics of parenting that are likely to contribute to an early developing premoral sensibility. Although attachment theory does not provide a comprehensive account of how secure attachment contributes to morally relevant conduct, it offers a perspective on moral development that is important to the field. The chapter concludes with an outline of what an attachment perspective to early moral development might look like.

Proactive Parenting and Moral Development

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the role of proactive parenting (i.e., parenting in anticipation of a child’s behavior) as it relates to the socialization of morality in children and adolescents. In an effort to synthesize across different fields of research, the chapter assesses parental communication and monitoring using three strategies of proactive parenting: cocooning, pre-arming, and deference. Specifically, proactive parent-child communication about ethnic discrimination and about sexuality is explored. Parental monitoring (or management of a child’s peer and media use) is also explored. Across these topics, we synthesized research exploring patterns of proactive parenting and their associations with various moral outcomes, such as prosocial behavior, civic engagement, and aggression. In addition, future directions for research are presented, including distinctions between proactive and reactive parenting, examination of proactive parenting in relation to other established parenting constructs, inclusion of diverse samples, and more nuanced approaches to studying moral development.

Parenting and Prosocial Moral Behavior in Predominantly Muslim Countries

This chapter aims to examine how parenting relates to prosocial moral behavior in predominantly Muslim countries. First, we briefly define two theoretical approaches to explain prosocial behavior across cultures. Next, we present a discussion of Islam, its sects (Sunni, Shi‘a, and Khawarij), basic teachings, rites, rules, and beliefs, and how all these factors are associated with prosocial and moral behavior in Islamic families. After reviewing the literature on different aspects of parenting and prosocial behavior in these majority Muslim countries, it is concluded that examining of prosocial behaviors in different ethnic and cultural groups in Muslim populations reveals both cultural specificity and universality. Future studies should focus on the analysis of contextual factors as well as parenting to help us to better understand which settings are most appropriate for interventions to promote different types of prosocial moral behaviors in different Muslim societies.

The Socialization of Children’s Moral Understanding in the Context of Everyday Discourse

Conversations with parents are one important way in which moral and behavioral standards get communicated to children. This chapter explores how the content and style of parent-child discourse might influence children’s socialization and moral development. Although researchers have emphasized the importance of discourse in the context of inductive discipline, there has been little empirical work on how the content of that discourse might influence children’s perception and appropriation of the discipline message. Thus, we speculate on the types of discourse that might be important for promoting children’s moral internalization in the context of discipline. More work has been done on parent-child discourse in other contexts, including on children’s reminiscing, parent-child conflict, and the discussion of hypothetical and real world conflicts. We review this work and highlight the importance of examining the interplay between content and style of discourse in predicting moral development.