Age and education in moral judgment of participants in team sports.

The present aim was to investigate the effect of age and education on the moral reasoning of the same 535 individuals in sports for whom nature of sport experience was reported. All 535 participants (M age = 24.9 yr., SD = 8.3) were involved in sports at the time of the study as athletes (n = 342), referees (n = 145), or coaches (n = 48), and had a wide range of education. Analysis of variance of scores on the Defining Issues Test of Rest showed moral judgment in sports differs significantly amongst different age groups (F5.510 = 5.37, p < .001) and amounts of education (F4.511 = 6.24, p < .001). Generally, with more education, higher moral judgment can be expected. It is apparent that moral development in sport is related to age and education, as also holds for a wider social setting.