Parental Influence on Moral Development: Role of Temperament and Self-Regulation

Parental influence plays a vital role in the formation of children's moral development. This paper aims to comprehensively review mainly focused on past decade empirical research and theoretical perspectives, and explore the impact of different parenting styles, child traits and cultural backgrounds on moral outcomes. The systematic review includes qualitative and quantitative studies to provide a balanced perspective on the role of parents in moral development. The findings consistently emphasize that authoritative parenting, warmth with attributes, and control can promote positive moral outcomes. However, the temperament and cultural background of the children significantly mitigated these effects. However, the impact of these parenting styles is not uniform across all children. These effects are considerably moderated by cultural background and child temperament, including emotional reactivity and self-regulation levels. For example, children raised in collectivist vs individualist cultures or those with more difficult temperaments could react differently to the same parenting techniques. This paper identifies the major gaps in current research, including the need for longitudinal and cross-cultural studies research, and proposes future research directions, particularly regarding the impact of modern technology on ethical development.