NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children who are very popular with their peers seem to be better able than unpopular children to distinguish between universal moral standards--such as that stealing is wrong--and varying conventional standards of right and wrong, such as the proper way to dress and eat, researchers report.

"These results are consistent with the view that children's friends and other peers play an influential role in their moral development," study authors Drs. Chris Pawson and G. Nobes of the University of East London told Reuters Health in an e-mail interview. "It is also likely that good peer relations result from good moral reasoning: children like other children who are fair and honest and sympathetic."

Pawson and Nobes investigated the relationship between peer interaction and moral reasoning in a study of 120 children aged 5 to 9.

All of the children were rated by their peers on how much they were liked as a playmate, and were subsequently grouped into highly popular, moderately popular or unpopular categories. The classmates of each participant were also asked to first nominate their three best friends and then the three people they liked the most and the least, respectively.

The children in the highly popular, moderately popular and unpopular groups were similar in terms of age and verbal reasoning as rated by their teachers, the investigators report. They differed, however, on their moral reasoning, with the most popular students exhibiting the highest development in moral reasoning.

Further, when the children were divided into groups based on the number of times they were nominated as a best friend or whether they were listed as most liked or least liked, the results were similar. Those who were most frequently listed as a friend, who were reciprocally listed as a friend, and who were most liked by their peers displayed the highest level of moral reasoning, Pawson and Nobes report.

In light of the findings, "it is important that parents and schools recognize the beneficial effects for children of good peer relations," the researchers conclude. "Children who are unpopular with their classmates are more likely than other children to be poor moral reasoners and to exhibit antisocial behavior.

"Indeed these findings might shed light on the well-established connection between peer rejection and future delinquency and criminality," Pawson and Nobes add.

The study findings were presented recently during the American Psychological Society's annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Reference Source 89

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