The Propensity of Character Education to Promote and Predict Moral Development as Measured in Middle School Students

With an interest in whether character education programs promoted moral development, a study was conducted on a group of middle school students. The question driving this quantitative research asked whether four components of character education—namely self-management, self-efficacy, social awareness, and growth mindset—might predict moral reasoning in adolescents. Data from a multiple and simple regression provided an answer to this study’s question. Surveys completed by 126 students (grades six through eight) provided data for the initial multiple regression. Upon conducting the multiple regression, growth mindset emerged as the only component with a statistically significant (p \u3c .001) relationship with moral reasoning. After the non-relational variables were removed, and a simple regression was conducted, the analysis indicated growth mindset accounted for 11% of a student’s moral reasoning and yielded a small effect size of .11. Along with identifying a significant relationship between growth mindset and moral reasoning, the study further identified an underlying relationship between context, growth mindset, and moral development. In light of Christian educators’ “Scriptural advantage”, Christian schools hold a “contextual advantage” when it comes to establishing cognitive, instructional, and societal contexts