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 assess distributive justice development in lower-and middle-class children attending social-class-integrated schools.In Study 1, 28 middle-and 28 lower-class white children from kindergarten and third grade were given the Distributive Justice Scale and a vocabulary test. Results showed that regardless of grade, the lower class lagged behind the middle class in distributive justice development even when vocabulary was controlled. In Study 2, 32 middle-and 32 lower-class black children from kindergarten and third grade were given the same measures plus sociometric peer ratings. The results replicated Study 1. The peer ratings showed that lower-class children were chosen most often for negative sociometric questions. Implications are drawn for both distributive justice development and social class integration.

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