Dual process in parent–adolescent moral socialization: The moderating role of maternal warmth and involvement

Abstract

Introduction: It has been argued that moral identity can be conceptualized as implicit and automatic or explicit and controlled dualities of cognitive information processing. In this study, we examined whether socialization in the moral domain may also exhibit a dual process. We further tested whether parenting that is warm and involved may play a moderating role in moral socialization. We assessed relations between mothers' implicit and explicit moral identity, warmth and involvement, and the prosocial behavior and moral values of their adolescent children. Methods: Participants were 105 mother-adolescent dyads from Canada, with adolescents between 12 and 15 years of age and 47% girls. Mothers' implicit moral identity was measured using the Implicit Association Test (IAT), adolescents' prosocial behavior was measured using a donation task, and the remaining mother and adolescent measures were self-reported. Data were cross-sectional. Results: We found that mothers' implicit moral identity was associated with adolescents' greater generosity during the prosocial behavior task, but only when mothers were warm and involved. Mothers' explicit moral identity was associated with adolescents' more prosocial values. Conclusions: Moral socialization may occur through dual processes, and as an automatic process may only take place when mothers are also high in warmth and involvement, setting the conditions for adolescents' understanding and acceptance of the moral values being taught and ultimately their automatic morally relevant behaviors. Adolescents' explicit moral values, on the other hand, may be aligned with more controlled, reflective socialization processes.K E Y W O R D S moral development, moral identity, parenting, prosocial behavior, socialization | INTRODUCTIONConsiderable research has addressed the question of how children acquire moral values, beliefs, and actions through the assistance of their parents. A general conclusion is that agents of socialization, such as parents, successfully promote their children's internalization of moral values (their acceptance of these values as internally motivated and as reflecting their own viewpoint) in two ways: by rewarding and modeling moral behaviors and by talking with their children about the importance of moral values. Work supporting this premise shows that adolescent children of parents who volunteer and donate are likely to do the same (Ottoni-Wilhelm et al., 2014), even as adults (Mustillo et al., 2004), and that parents and their children tend to share similar prosocial orientations (Headey et al., 2014;Soenens et al., 2007;Yaban & Sayil, 2021). Parenting behavior that produces these positive outcomes is motivated or guided by the parent's moral identity, that is, by the extent to which parents see morality as a central part of their self-concept. Parents who have a strong moral identity are likely to engage in