The purpose of this study was to investigate North Korean child defectors and South Korean children’s pro-socialmoral reasoning, pro-social decision-making, moral reasoning and moral judgement on violence. The participantswere 82 North Korean child ...
The purpose of this study was to investigate North Korean child defectors and South Korean children’s pro-socialmoral reasoning, pro-social decision-making, moral reasoning and moral judgement on violence. The participantswere 82 North Korean child defectors and 186 South Korean children in Seoul and Kyunggi Province. Allrespondents answered self-report questionnaires including 6 stories of pro-social moral conflicts and 4 stories ofmoral conflicts on violence. Data were analyzed by independent sample t-test, Scheff test, repeated measureANOVA and one-way ANOVA. The major findings were as follows. First, North Korean child defectors showed abigger difference between the level of pro-social moral reasoning in close relationship situations and that in distantrelationship situations than South Korean children did. In the 11-13 year old group, North Korean child defectorsshowed lower level of pro-social moral reasoning than that of South Korean children. Second, children showed morehelping responses in close relationship situations than in distant relationship situations. The 11-13 year old groupChildren also showed more helping responses than the 14-16 year old group did. Third, 11-13 year old South