Over the past 20 years, care reasoning has been increasingly recognised as an
important aspect of moral development. Skoe has developed an interview measure of
levels of care reasoning about the needs of self and other in relationships, the
Ethic of Care Interview or ECI. In the present longitudinal research, we
investigated developmental changes and family correlates of reasoning about care
issues in a family study of 32 adolescents (aged 16 and then 20 years). There were
no gender differences on the ECI for these adolescents, but there was a significant
increase in scores over time. Care reasoning levels at age 20 were significant
concurrent predictors of self-reported community involvement. Several parenting
factors when children were age 16 (parents’ emphasis on caring as a goal
in family stories, child reports of a more authoritative family parenting style, and
parents’ use of more autonomy-encouraging practices) were associated with
higher levels of care reasoning in adolescents at age 20, consistent with
theoretical expectations.
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