A paired-comparisons measure of distributive justice development (DJS) was developed and validated in three studies. In Study 1 104 children from kindergarten and second and fourth grades were given the DJS and two Piagetian logical reasoning tasks. Age trends and a relation with logical reasoning were found. In Study 2 66 children from first, third, and fifth grades were given the DJS and a measure of verbal ability. Age trends and a low relation with verbal ability were found. In Study 3 88 first, third, and fifth grade children from Kinshasa, Africa, were given the DJS. The trends replicated those found in Study 2. Implications for distributive justice research are drawn.The development of moral judgment in children has been a popular area for researchers since Piaget's (1932) and Kohlberg's (1958) pioneering efforts in this area. Recently Damon (1975) has narrowed the broadly defined area of moral judgment to assess children's understanding of distributive justice, or the fair allocation of goods in a group or society. Such a domain is important to study, since this form of reasoning is part of everyday life, not only in childhood but throughout one's life. People are faced far more often with distributive decisions-such as giving and receiving allowances, giving to charities, reinforcing others' behavior-than with such Kohlbergian justice decisions as saving a life through theft of an exorbitantly priced drug.

Two studies were undertaken to validate the construct of belief-

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