DEVELOPMENT OF PROSOCIAL MORAL REASONING IN YOUNG ADOLESCENTS AND ITS RELATION TO PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOUR AND MEANINGFULNESS OF LIFE: LONGITUDINAL STUDY

The aims of our study were to investigate the longitudinal paths of relations between prosocial moral reasoning, prosocial behaviour and life meaningfulness in young adolescents. Data were collected at four time points (T1–T4) over 5 years using a prosocial behaviour questionnaire (Roche & Sol, 1998), a questionnaire on prosocial moral reasoning (PRM) (Carlo, Eisenberg, & Knight, 1992), a revised version of the noo-dynamics test (Popielski, 1991), and the Life Meaningfulness Scale (Halama, 2002). The research sample consisted of 351 participants (49.30% female, Mage = 11.93; SD =.43) in the first phase (T1–T2), and 343 students (41.6% females; Mage = 14.65; SD =.57) participating in the second phase (T3–T4). Path model 1, which included relations between prosocial moral reasoning (T1, T2), self-reported prosocial behaviour (T1, T2) and salutogenic noo-dynamics (Popielski, 1991), has not found the necessary support in the data. However, path model 2, which included relations between prosocial moral reasoning (T3, T4), self-reported prosocial behaviour (T3, T4) and life meaningfulness (Halama, 2002) in adolescents aged 14–15 years old, shows a good fit to the data.