Perception of School Moral Atmosphere and Elementary Students’ Moral Development

Background: In the recent years, understanding school environment’s contributions to students’ development has been of increasing concern. One of the variables that could be affected by the school moral atmosphere is moral development. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of students’ perception of school moral atmosphere on their moral development. Patients and Methods: The statistical population consisted of the students of Shiraz elementary schools. Multi-stage cluster random sampling was used to select 412 participants (grade four to six students) from different schools. They completed self-report questionnaires tapping school moral atmosphere questionnaire (SMAQ) and moral judgment test (MJT) in the classroom during a school lesson. All descriptive statistics, regression, and confirmatory factor analyses were performed with the SPSS 19 software. Results: Simultaneous multiple regression of school moral atmosphere on students’ moral development showed that subscales of the school moral atmosphere predict students’ moral development. These findings are discussed fully in the results section. Conclusions: The findings showed that perception of school moral atmosphere is a significant factor in predicting students’ moral development. More specifically, these findings highlight the importance of improving the moral atmosphere of schools for the benefit of all members of the school community.