| dc.description.abstract | Civic prosocial behaviour can be a positive influence to an individual’s wellbeing and society
in general. The family context and moral development possibly influence this civic prosocial
behaviour, but little research has been done to this relationship.
This study wishes to clarify the relation between moral development, civic prosocial
behaviour and several family characteristics: positive family communication, family cohesion
and family norms. The civic prosocial behaviour of both parents and the presence of siblings
are also taken into account.
Three ‘havo/vwo’ schools participated in this study, with 121 adolescents from the
second to the sixth grade. All participants completed questionnaires about their own and their
parents’ civic prosocial activities, about their families’ communication, cohesion and norms,
and they all rated several moral dilemmas.
Their was a positive relation found between the civic prosocial behaviour of
adolescents and their moral development, after controlling for family communication,
cohesion and norms. There is also a positive relation between the civic prosocial behaviour of
adolescents and the civic prosocial behaviour of their mother’s. There was an interactioneffect
found between the presence of younger siblings and sex for the moral development of
adolescents. Finally, there was a relation found between the moral development of
adolescents and grade. | |
