Social perspective-taking, intimate friendship, and the adolescent transition to mutualistic moral judgment

Beyond its relationship to general cognitive development, the transition from pragmatic to mutualistic moral judgment during adolescence may relate to social experiential processes. Social experiences of particular theoretical interest in this study pertain to social perspective-taking in friendships, and in particular, the sharing of perspectives afforded by intimate friendships. The present study investigated these possible relationships using a sample of 405 adolescent students recruited from grades seven through twelve in a Midwestern middle-class suburban school district. Mutualistic moral judgment was assessed using a recent Kohlbergian stage measure. Verbal ability and social experiential processes accounted for comparable portions of the variance in adolescent moral judgment. General friendship perspective-taking correlated with friendship intimacy, and each separately predicted moral judgment maturity. Females reported higher levels of friendship perspective-taking, and (as a trend) evidenced more mature moral judgment during early adolescence. Overall, friendship perspective-taking experiences, both generally and within the context of intimate dyads, may facilitate the development of mutualistic moral judgment during adolescence.