Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a significant relationship between formal religious education and the moral judgment development of college students, and, after controlling for formal religious education, to see if there is also a significant relationship between the educational environment or certain selected student characteristics and the moral judgment development of those students. Formal religious education was defined as the study of Judeo-Christian philosophy, theology, or ethics at a fully accredited college or divinity school. Educational environment was defined as the type of school attended and the Judeo-Christian denominational affiliation of the school. ;A correlational design was used, and data were gathered through two instruments: a one-page demographics, educational background, religious ideology, and moral values background questionnaire designed by the researcher; and the Defining Issues Test designed by James Rest. DIT P scores were used as the measure of moral development. The final data base contained 226 randomly selected college and divinity school students, enrolled at 12 fully accredited, randomly selected institutions from 11 states located throughout the United States. ;The number of ethics courses completed was related significantly to the moral judgment development of liberal arts college students; however, this relationship was not significant for divinity school students. Judeo-Christian philosophy or theology courses completed were not related significantly to student moral development. ;After controlling for ethics courses completed, the type of school attended, the affiliation of some institutions, and 8 of 15 selected student characteristics were related significantly to the moral judgment development of students. Divinity school students had significantly higher levels of moral development than liberal arts college students. Students attending Roman Catholic and Southern Baptist institutions had significantly lower levels of moral development than students attending nonaffiliated institutions. Conversely, the moral development of students attending Jewish and United Methodist institutions did not differ significantly from the moral development of students attending nonaffiliated institutions. The eight significantly related student characteristics were gender, ethnic group, highest degree held, year of study, mother's education level, father's education level, religious ideology regarding moral decisions, and individual denominational membership