Hello Sadguna,

I know of three tests that can be used to assess children's moral reasoning:

1. Kohlberg's Moral Judgment Interview (MJI; see also Colby & Kohlberg, 1987):

Kohlberg, L. (1958). The development of modes of thinking and choices in years 10 to 16 (doctoral dissertation). University of Chicago.

2. The Defining Issues Test (DIT-2; see also the web pages of the University of Minnesota's Center for the Study of Ethical Development):

Rest, J. R., Narvaez, D., Thoma, S., & Bebeau, M. J. (1999). DIT2: Devising and testing a revised instrument of moral judgment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(4), 644-659. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.91.4.644

3. The Moral Competence Test (MCT; see also the authors' website at the University of Konstanz):

Lind, G. (1978). Wie misst man moralisches Urteil? Probleme und alternative Möglichkeiten der Messung eines komplexen Konstrukts. [How does one measure moral judgment? Problems and alternative possibilities of measuring a complex construct]. In G. Portele (Ed.). Sozialisation und Moral. [Socialization and Morality]. Weinheim: Beltz, pp. 171 - 201.

As far as I know, though, these tests have mainly been administered to older children (e.g., DIT-2 for ninth graders and older). I am not aware of any tests specifically developed for preschoolers. Also note that none of these tests is free from criticism, which should be considered when choosing to apply them.

Kind regards, Jonas

Many tasks measure morality broadly, and moral reasoning in particular, among preschoolers. More broadly, you could measure empathy, sharing, or rule-following (e.g., Carolyn Zahn-Waxler; Grazyna Kochanska). Specific to reasoning, you could present classic dilemmas from Jean Piaget’s “Moral Judgement of the Child” to see how much children take intentions behind misbehaviors into account (i.e., morality of constraint vs. autonomous morality). You could provide a distributive justice opportunity, like William Damon’s, to balance equality, need, and merit. A paper just recently came out with a trolley problem variation for children (Dworazik et al., 2019)! You can also provide situations to compare violations of convention with violations of morals (e.g., Lockhart et al., 1977). Hope one of these is helpful, Sadguna! ~ Kevin

Trolley Problem:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337804751

Distributive Justice:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317851426

Jonas and Kevin,

You two are awesome!

Thank you for the references and explanations. Surely, each test/measurement might have its own limitations. I was planning to check the child’s morality/moral reasoning and see if any sociological/cultural/economic/educational factors had any impact. Not much of their moral competence, but, more of their reasoning. And, if I was able to collect data from different ages groups, cross-sectionally, I could/might see any patterns or not!

I will explore these studies listed above and see if I can make a choice that might work best for my sample.

Happy New Year 2020, to you both. Thanks again.

Sadguna

You might be interested in the work of Lene Arnett Jensen, who studies types of moral reasoning rather than levels. Her measure is presented in DOI: 10.1177/0165025415587534, and she has several articles detailing the theoretical underpinnings.