Early moral conscience development: The contributions of fathers’ authoritative parenting style and father–child mutually responsive orientations including the moderating effects of child temperament

• Author / Creator

  Day, Lita L.

• The current study examined the extent that fathers’ authoritative parenting style (APS)
  and father–child mutually responsive orientation (MRO) explained children’s moral conscience.
  Two dimensions of child temperament, fearfulness and effortful control, were investigated for
  moderating effects of fathers’ APS and father–child MRO on children’s moral conscience.
  Participants included 59 father–child dyads (children’s mean age = 32.75 months; 30 male and
  29 female). Fathers completed questionnaires measuring parenting styles and their children’s
  temperament, and fathers and children were observed during a home-based play task to measure
  mutually responsive orientation between fathers and children. Children completed narrative story
  stems of moral dilemmas and were observed for elements of moral conscience development.
  Results revealed fathers’ APS and father–child MRO did not significantly explain variance in
  children’s moral conscience outcomes. There was a significant moderation effect of children’s
  fearfulness on the relationship between APS and moral conscience, but not between MRO and
  moral conscience. Follow-up analyses showed a positive relationship between fathers’ APS and
  moral conscience only for children with low levels of fearfulness. While there was a significant
  direct effect of children’s effortful control on moral conscience, there was no significant
  moderation effect of effortful control on the relationship between either APS or MRO and
  children’s moral conscience outcomes.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Fathers
  • Children
  • Socialization
  • Temperament
  • Morality
  • Conscience
  • Development

• Graduation date

  Spring 2021

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Education

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-37fa-ry84

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.