Bayous and Jungle Rivers: Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Children’s Environmental Moral Reasoning

Citation

Kahn Jr, P. H. (1997). Bayous and jungle rivers: Cross‐cultural perspectives on children’s environmental moral reasoning. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 1997(76), 23-36. doi.org/10.1002/cd.23219977604

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The Amazon river in Brazil Researchers carried out two studies to understand how children from different cultures think about right and wrong and how they value nature. The first study took place in an inner-city Black community in Houston, Texas, and involved 72 children from low-income families. Despite the challenges of growing up in a crowded urban environment, the children showed a strong and thoughtful appreciation for nature and a clear sense of responsibility about protecting it.

The second study was done in the Brazilian Amazon and involved 44 fifth-grade children. It followed a similar approach to the Houston study. The results showed that the Brazilian children did not think about nature in a more nature-centered way than the children in Houston, even though they lived closer to natural environments.

Together, the studies suggest that children across different cultures often share similar ways of thinking about moral issues. Their reasoning is shaped by common concerns such as caring for others, fairness, and basic rights. The findings highlight the importance of recognizing these shared human values, rather than focusing only on cultural differences, in order to better understand moral development and what people have in common.

Abstract

Two studies evaluated cross cultural perspectives of children’s moral and ecological reasoning as well as values about nature. The first study was conducted in Houston, Texas, with an inner city Black community. Subjects were 72 children from impoverished families. The results suggested that the serious constraints of living in an inner-city community cannot easily squelch Black children’s diverse and rich appreciation for nature, and moral responsiveness to its preservation. The second study, conducted in the Brazilian Amazon, is a modification of the Houston study. Subjects were 44 Portuguese fifth-grade children. The results suggested that Brazilian children do not exercise more biocentric reasoning than those in the Houston study. The two studies extend recent research in the moral developmental literature which suggests that, in important ways, individuals’ moral reasoning across cultures is similarly structured by concerns for human welfare, fairness, and rights. Inadequate attention to universal aspects of development in general, end morality in particular, would result in missing the many essential ways of being human, and underestimating common humanity.