A quantitative study of adolescent moral decision making

This study examined the relationship between the moral judgment and decisions of adolescents, as demonstrated by their response to questions on the Adolescent Intermediate Concepts Measure (AD-icm) created in 2004 by Thoma, Hestevold, Sargent, and Crowson. The AD-icm is a survey that presented scenarios with a moral theme and encouraged the participant to take on the role of the main character by supposing what he/she would do in the same situation in order to measure moral judgment. It duplicated the validity and reliability of measuring intermediate concepts in adolescents that were originally studied by Rest in 1979 through the Defining Issues Test (DIT) with adults and professionals performing ethical roles in their fields. The study considered the moral decisions of adolescents, aged 14--19, as it related to their self-proclaimed religious beliefs, as determined by their religious affiliation. It further considered if girls were more likely to make moral decisions than boys, and to what extent maturity related, as determined by age, grade level, and stage of development. The participants were a sample of 9th- to 12th-grade students who were enrolled in the HOPE (Health Opportunities through Physical Education), personal fitness, weight training, and traditional health classes at a public high school in Florida. The school hoped to affirm the constructive decisions of their students and learn ways to minimize the decisions that result in unintended pregnancy and other dire consequential outcomes. The results of the study supported the idea that girls are more likely than boys to choose the more moral options. The results did not reveal any statistical significance in the moral decisions of students by age or grade level. It also rejected the idea that students who identified a religious affiliation would choose the moral options more often. However, White students chose the moral options statistically more than Black students in the study.