Moral behavior and pro-social behaviors: Does art education create a difference?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether art education creates a difference on moral behavior and to determine college students’ moral behaviors through their perceptions of their parents’ pro-social behaviors. The subjects of this study consist of 202 college students (Female: 125, Male: 77).  Moral behavior was measured by using the “Scale of Evaluating Moral Behavior”, which was developed by Hogan (1973) and Blasi (1980). In order to measure pro-social behaviors, the “Scale of Child and Family” was used. This instrument was developed by Lennon and Others in 1987.  The results showed that art education did not create a difference on moral behavior. Moral behavior was found to be significantly related with fathers’ pro-social behaviors and the personal moral character subscale of Scale of Evaluating Moral Behavior was significantly predicted to the subgroups of mothers’ understanding of emotions and fathers’ need of helping. These results were discussed in relation with the literature on moral behavior and the development of pro-social behaviors.