Mothers' Explicit and Implicit Moral Identity, Parenting and Adolescent Moral Development

Grusec and Goodnow (1994) proposed a framework wherein children's internalization of values depends upon the accurate perception and acceptance of parents' values. The present research attempted to demonstrate the utility of the proposed framework. Using a longitudinal approach with measures taken at two time points, reasoning, directiveness and ignoring misbehaviour were examined as potential moderators of the relation between maternal moral identity, explicit and implicit, and adolescents' internalization of moral values. Two measures of adolescent internalization were used: mother-adolescent value congruency and adolescent relative autonomy. The results indicated that higher levels of reasoning moderated the relation between maternal implicit moral identity and adolescent moral values, lower levels of directiveness moderated the relation between maternal explicit moral identity and adolescent moral values, and lower levels of ignoring misbehaviour moderated the relation between maternal explicit moral identity and adolescent relative autonomy. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.M.A