'Road to virtue': The moral world of Chinese- and Korean-American students

Asian Americans are absent from research on moral development.;This study's objective is to understand how 38 Korean- and Chinese-American college students define the scope of what is moral; respond to situations involving right and wrong; and perceive cultural influence in their conceptions of morality. Its framework draws on Gilligan (1982) and Brown (1988).;Research participants are drawn from a public university on the west coast and a private university on the east. Data collection consists primarily of semi-structured, open-ended interviews. Analytic processes and tools consist of open coding, matrix displays, narrative summaries, memos and diagrams.;The overall finding is that parents and family are the core relation and respect for parents the core value. Otherwise, a majority view moral issues and morality as weighty and fundamental. In actual situations involving issues of right and wrong, nearly half of all participants consider their parents' wishes. Preserving relationship, preventing harm, and honesty are important values. Nearly half of all participants believe that the difference in moral orientation between Asian Americans and non-Asians lies in the former's respect for parents and elders.;The emergence of parents and family as the core relation is explained by the predominance in this study of children of immigrants well-educated in Chinese and Korean traditions. These traditions may resonate well with survival strategies needed for a sometimes racially hostile environment.;The ethic of relationships that emerges interweaves justice and care through different layers. It draws on both, but is neither. Justice is apparent in an approach to relationships based on rigid social roles. Care lies in the pursuit of relationship and a desire to avoid hurt. The resulting relationships sometimes lack genuineness and openness. Nevertheless, such relationships are prized in east Asian traditions if they are sustained peacefully at least in appearance.;The developmental themes of "growth in connection" and "differentiation within relationship," originally conceived to gain insight into women's development, maps well onto the development of the (predominantly filial pious) interdependent self that seems to characterize many of this study's Asian American participants.