The Link Between Friendship and Moral Development

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The Link Between Friendship and Moral Development

The study of morality is molded by an intricately linked set of tangential issues each of which has a unique effect on moral development. Friendship and peer groups in particular play an indisputable role in helping to shape the path of moral development in children and adolescents. In evaluating various philosophical and psychological perspectives on morality, two principal arguments emerge concerning the link between friendship and moral development: in the first argument, friendships act as a positive force in fostering moral development, as they provide a background upon which children can formulate their own moral rules and values. In direct contradiction, the second argument espouses friendship and morality as inherently antithetical, relying heavily on the idea that friendship encourages subjectiveness and impartiality. The potential negative influence of peer influence on moral development is perhaps most clearly manifested in the prevalence of aggression and violence in the lives of many children and adolescents. In studying the link between friendship and moral development, then, it is crucial to consider both the positive and negative consequences that peer relations can have on a child’s struggle to develop his own individual sense of morality.

The Definition of Friendship and its Relationship to Moral Development

In exploring the effects of friendship on moral development, particularly in children and adolescents, it is necessary first to establish the ways in which these phenomena are related. Traditionally, friendship and morality have been viewed as separate entities independent of one another; consequently, there is little research pertaining to the specif...

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... York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Cairns, Robert and Beverley. Lifelines and Risks: Pathways of Youth in our Time.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Eron, L., Gentry, J., & Schlegel, P. Reason to Hope: A Psycholosocial Perspective on Violence and Youth. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1994.

Friedman, Marilyn. What Are Friends For? London: Cornell University Press, 1993.

Garbarino, James. Lost Boys. New York: The Free Press, 1999.

Henry, David B. "Peer Groups, Families, and School Failure Among Urban Children: Elements of Risk and Successful Interventions." Preventing School Failure, 44:3, 97-105.

Piaget, Jean. The Moral Judgment of the Child. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1932.

Pinderhughes, Howard. Race in the Hood: Conflict and Violence Among UrbanYouth. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997.

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