Teaching moral intelligence and its effect on altruism and aggression in children under 7 years

Introduction: Moral intelligence is one of the influential factors in raising a child that can affect his personal and social development. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of moral intelligence training on altruistic behavior and aggression in children under 7 years old. Methods: This research was a quasi-experimental study in which the pre-test-post-test design with a control group was used. The statistical population of this study consisted of all children aged 4 to 7 years in Yazd in the academic year 2019-2020. Thirty children were selected by the available sampling method and randomly assigned to two groups of experimental and control. The intervention program consisted of seven 30-minutes sessions of moral intelligence training that were presented to the children in the experimental group. Data collection tools included two questionnaires of aggression in preschool children Vahedi et al. (2008) and the abilities and problems of Goodman et al. (1997). Questionnaires were completed for participants in both groups, before and after the intervention and also after one month of the study (follow-up stage). Finally, the data were analyzed using analysis of covariance. Results: After the intervention, there was a significant difference between the scores in the experimental and control groups after the intervention and also after three weeks of the intervention (follow-up stage). Aggression was reduced in children (P <0.001), and altruistic behavior in children had increased (P <0.05). Conclusion: Teaching moral intelligence components is effective in improving aggression and altruism in children under 7 years old, and moral intelligence training can be used to improve aggression and altruism in children under 7 years old.