This study had 3 goals. The first aim was to explore maternal practices of social control used by mothers to avoid undesirable behavior of their children. The second goal was to investigate the relationship between maternal practices of social control and children's moral judgement. The last goal was to validate mothers' answers on maternal practices of social control. In order to attain these goals, field and laboratory studies were conducted: two field studies evaluated the preventive control techniques used by mothers and the relationship of these techniques with the moral judgement of their children. In a third study (field and laboratory studies) the questionnaire answeredd by mothers was validated. The first study had 110 mother-child dyads. The second study had 222 mother-child dyads. The third study had 72 mother-child dyads, 22 of which were observed with their children during a laboratory situation. The children's age varied from 5 to 11 years old. The mothers' answers showed the presence of two factors considered as inner and external controls. The inner control was associated to a higher level of moral judgement than the external. Mothers' behavior in the laboratory showed consistency with their answered in the questionnaire.
Maternal practices of social control; moral judgement; questionnaire validity
