This project supports the dissertation research of a cultural anthropologist from UCLA, studying the effects of political violence on the moral development of children. The project will ask how and when moral proscriptions against violence are universally binding or context-specific, and whether children's moral rules are more similar to those of children from other cultures or those within their own culture, holding socio-economic class constant. Thirty male and female children from 3 age ranges (5-7, 8-10, 11-13) in 3 subsamples (urban upper class, urban middle class, rural poor) will be interviewed as well as 30 male and female adults in El Salvador, as well as a US sample of children and adults in . In each case a questionnaire consisting of 36 behavioral cases of `wrong` behavior will presented and the persons asked to comment on its morality in diverse contexts. This project is important because it will advance our understanding of how children learn moral rules. Testing the proposition that the development of such rule is culture-specific as opposed to cross-culturally stable will contribute valuable information to bear on this question. At a time when many in US society bemoan the lack of values among the youth, a project such as this will provide valuable information on the source of and variation in moral values in children.
