The Role of Religious Orientation and Socio-economic Status in the Development of Moral Judgment in Teenage Students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between religious orientation and moral judgment, and also to investigate the role of religious orientation and socio-economic status in the development of moral judgment in teenage students. Method: Method in this research is descriptive. The population of this descriptive research includes male and female students studying in schools of Tehran. On the whole, 613 students (301 ones from the third grade of guidance school and 312 ones from the third grade of high school) were selected by random multistage cluster sampling. Two self-rating questionnaires including the Defining of Issues Test (DIT) and the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS) were used. The standard deviation of population scores were calculated in the Defining of Issues Test (DIT) and the Religious Orientation Scale (ROS). The reliability and validity of the questionnaires were approved by psychometric tests. To analyze the data, we used the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test and the correlation coefficient. Findings: The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between intrinsic (internal) religious orientation and extrinsic (external) religious orientation. However, no significant relation was found between the religious orientation and moral judgment. In addition, the mean scores of moral judgment development were not significant at different levels of variables such as intrinsic religious orientation, extrinsic religious orientation, and socio-economic status.