Moral Dilemmas of Early Adolescents of Divorced and Intact Families

Abstract

In this exploratory study, differences in the content of moral dilemmas reported by early adolescents of divorcedversus intact families were investigated. Based on developmental theory and prior clinical observations, it was hypothesized that early adolescents from divorced families would report more family-related moral dilemmas. Nearly the entire population (n = 98) of fifth graders from a rural midwestern town were asked to describe a moral dilemma they were experiencing. Early adolescents of divorce reported more family-related moral dilemmas than did early adolescents of intact families. There were no differences by gender or educational level of parents. The results tentatively support the clinical observations of Wallerstein that children and adolescents of divorce face additional psychological tasks in development. The results appear to support the Kegan theory of development, which postulates that early adolescents of divorce may not advance as soon as other early adolescents from embeddedness in the family to embeddedness in the peer culture.