Children’s moral judgments and reasoning regarding environmentally harmful behaviors: Variation by victim type and moderation effect of connectedness to nature

This study explored the differences in young children’s moral judgments regarding environmentally harmful behaviors based on victim type and the moderation effect of connectedness to nature (CN). Further, this study investigated which reasoning types (ecocentric, anthropocentric, and non-environmental) significantly explained children’s moral judgment. This study included 185 five-year-old Korean children and their mothers. The children participated in two interview sessions. In one session, they were randomly assigned to one of five groups—no video or video with unspecified, human, animal, or plant victim. In another session, they completed a Korean sentence comprehension test and a task assessing their recognition of animals and plants from the video. Mothers responded to a survey on their children’s CN and engagement in pro-environmental activities. A generalized Linear Mixed Model was employed using SPSS Win 27.0. Children’s judgment of environmentally harmful behaviors was more negative when presented with unspecified or human victims. The reasoning for their moral judgments and the moderating role of their CN varied by victim type. Environmental reasoning, especially ecocentric reasoning, was crucial in explaining children’s moral judgments of environmentally harmful behaviors. Thus, considering victims and environmental reasoning types is important for environmental education for sustainable development for young children, emphasizing the need to enhance children’s CN. •It is important to provide information about the consequences of environmental issues to children.•Children’s judgments and reasoning regarding environmentally harmful behaviors vary according to the victim types.•Children with a higher connectedness to nature tend to use more ecocentric reasoning when they see the consequences of environmental issues.•Children judge environmentally harmful behaviors more severely when they give out ecocentric reasoning.