Mediational Pathways to Moral Reasoning: Quality of the Mother-Child Relationship, Cognitive Support, and Children's Emotion Regulation and Executive Functioning

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
James Benjamin Hinnant (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Marion O'Brien

Abstract: The relations among children's moral reasoning, emotion regulation, executive planning abilities, quality of the mother-child relationship, and cognitive support and stimulation provided by parents, were examined in 87 10-year-old children. Theoretically driven hypotheses regarding the mediational pathways among these variables were tested in several comparative path analytic models. A mediational model wherein parental characteristics were indirectly related to moral reasoning via child characteristics was found to fit the data best. Specifically, children's executive functioning was directly and positively related to moral reasoning. The quality of the mother-child relationship was positively related to children's emotion regulation and marginally, positively related to moral reasoning via children's emotion regulation. Findings from these mediational analyses and their implications are discussed in detail.

Additional Information

Publication
Dissertation
Language: English
Date: 2008
Keywords
Mediational Pathways, Moral Reasoning, Mother-Child, Relationship, Cognitive Support, Children, Emotion Regulation, Executive Functioning
Subjects
Moral development $x Children.
Child psychology.
Moral development $x Research $x Children.
Mother-Child Relations.
Emotions $x Children.
Cognition in children $x Psychological aspects.

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