Historically, research on morality has focused on cognition, emphasizing the development of moral reasoning and judgment (Kohlberg, 1984; Rest, 1986; Turiel, 2006). More recently, psychologists have started integrating the socio-emotional aspects of moral functioning, such as empathy and social cooperation (Killen and Smetana, 2015), with the cognitive domain (Padilla-Walker and Carlo, 2014), but little work to date has examined the role of psychological wellbeing as a precursor to moral outcomes. This oversight is puzzling given that attending to the needs of others is compromised if individuals are distracted by their own distress (Batson and Oleson, 1991). Wellbeing, including not just the absence of psychopathology but also happiness and thriving, might well be essential for sociomoral capacities, such as empathy and conscience. As a foundation for interacting with the social world, a child's wellbeing theoretically fosters a particular “sociomoral temperament”—an orientation toward others—that either hinders or enables moral social behavior. Given the connections between poor wellbeing and chronic distress (e.g., Lanius et al., 2010), we hypothesized that wellbeing established early in development might be linked to sociomoral temperament, and that individual differences in wellbeing and consequent sociomoral temperament might contribute to variations in moral behavior. If so, intervention efforts designed to promote wellbeing and positive sociomoral temperaments in early childhood might have significant implications for children's social outcomes.

Empirical work supports the notion of a tie between wellbeing and moral outcomes. For example, the significantly compromised wellbeing caused by early toxic stress undermines self-regulatory capacities fundamental for sociality, such as the physiological stress response (Lupien et al., 2009) and vagal tone (Porges, 2011). Similarly, Kochanska and colleagues (e.g., Kochanska, 2002; Kochanska et al., 2005) have written extensively on the Mutually Responsive Orientation (MRO)—the emotional climate of the early parent-child relationship that promotes the development of conscience and the internalization of social mores. While the MRO and wellbeing are not synonymous, a positive emotional environment is a likely component of wellbeing in early childhood. How exactly positive wellbeing connects to outcomes is unclear, so in this work we focused on the details of the implicit systems that result in the “ethical knowhow” (Varela, 1999) necessary for children to exhibit moral behavior. These implicit systems mediating between psychological wellbeing and children's social outcomes is what we are assessing through our measure of sociomoral temperament.

The idea that wellbeing might have implications for sociomoral temperament has its roots in the relational developmental systems view (Overton, 2013). This perspective suggests that human functioning is not just psychological but deeply embodied, such that a child's wellbeing is a function of neurobiological architecture that shapes implicit assumptions and expectations about social interactions and relationships (Schore, 2019). Animal studies demonstrate that poor wellbeing is associated with cacostatic responses to social situations, such as aggression or withdrawal (Harlow, 1958). We hypothesized that in humans, this link between wellbeing and behavior might be mediated by implicit expectations regarding social interactions, or sociomoral temperament.

Although the relation between wellbeing and sociomoral temperament has not received significant attention in children, for adults, states of wellbeing are related to moral functioning (e.g., Frederickson and Branigan, 2005), and dispositional wellbeing (e.g., agreeableness) predicts prosociality (Meier et al., 2006). Likewise, in adult retrospective reports, Narvaez et al. (2016b) found that poor wellbeing, identified as subclinical psychopathology (depression and anxiety), predicted self-protective sociomoral temperaments emphasizing social opposition or withdrawal, whereas higher wellbeing (a lack of subclinical psychopathology) was associated with a sociomoral temperament characterized by engagement and social approach. We tested whether similar relations could be established as early as the preschool years, given our theory that sociomoral temperament emerges early in development when personality temperament is likewise being formed (Rothbart and Bates, 1998).

Our hypothesis that sociomoral temperament would be linked to social outcomes is based in Triune Ethics Meta-theory (TEM; Narvaez, 2008, 2014, 2016). TEM joins the trend toward studying the effects of implicit embodied functioning (rather than cognitive structures only) on psychosocial functioning (Varela et al., 1991), particularly in moral psychology (Narvaez and Lapsley, 2005; Narvaez, 2010). It integrates the interaction of developmentally-relevant experience, neurobiological development, and personality formation to clinical and sub-clinical moral outcomes with the idea that these may help explain the gap between moral judgment and moral action (Lapsley and Narvaez, 2004b). For example, despite having learned and internalized social rules, a person might feel justified to act from fear or rage in the heat of the moment if a social stimulus triggers an intense stress response for protection (e.g., Gilligan, 1997; van der Kolk, 2014).

TEM also holds that neurobiological dispositions are influenced by early wellbeing. For example, the functioning of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) system is affected by wellbeing (Lupien et al., 2009), such that with highly stressful experiences, an individual might develop a disposition toward a hyper- or hypo-reactive stress response, possibly undermining capacities for the social attunement required for socioemotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995a,b). Further, early wellbeing is associated with vagus nerve function (vagal tone), which appears fundamental to capacities related to compassionate moral behavior such as social approach and social closeness (Porges, 2011). Experiences that promote physiological and psychological wellbeing may thus influence sociomoral temperament, promoting social approach rather than withdrawal.

The TEM framework for understanding sociomoral functioning focuses on three basic orientations rooted in global brain states (MacLean, 1990): protectionism, engagement, and imagination. When a particular global brain state or mindset guides behavior, it becomes an ethic. A protectionist orientation emerges from the activation of survival systems (e.g., stress response: fight-flight-freeze-faint; Sapolsky, 2004) and focuses on self-preservation through dominance or withdrawal. The stress response directs perception, thought, and action in self-protective ways. For example, individuals whose neurobiological systems have a low threshold for activation of the stress response are likely to default to protectionist orientations (e.g., perceiving intentional harm when accidentally bumped, Crick and Dodge, 1994). In contrast, an engagement orientation draws on capacities for emotional presence, relational attunement, and unconditional positive regard (Rogers, 1961), which rely on developmental neurobiological capacities like vagal regulation (Porges, 2011) and social oxytocin release (Feldman, 2007). Well-functioning self-regulation, in combination with these neurobiological capacities, enables an engagement orientation. The ethic of imagination is undergirded by abilities to abstract and imagine possibilities outside the present moment. It adds creativity, intentionality, and abstraction into social relations and can be fueled by engagement or protectionist mechanisms.

In adults, triune ethics orientations have been examined with self-report measures that address how much a respondent thinks a list of characteristics represents an orientation they have and how much they think their friends and family would consider the list part of the respondent's characteristics (Narvaez, 2014; Narvaez and Hardy, 2016). Each list of characteristics relates to a particular type of mindset: protectionism (social opposition or withdrawal), engagement, or imagination [one that is generally reflective, detached (withdrawn), vicious (oppositional), or communal]. Although a person can shift among mindsets based on the situation, an adult sociomoral temperament defaulting to self-protectionism generally has been related to a personality pattern of distrust, aggression, and social dominance, as well as less prosocial behavior. In contrast, an engagement temperament has been related to greater agreeableness, conscientiousness, and prosocial behavior variably measured (Narvaez, 2014; Narvaez and Hardy, 2016; Narvaez et al., 2016a).

We tested whether individual differences in sociomoral temperaments would lead to variations in social behavior outcomes in the preschool years. Specifically, we examined variations in aspects of moral socialization, such as empathy and conscience, and in socially-relevant self-regulation, such as inhibitory control and misbehavior. Each of these outcomes is dependent upon a child's ability to regulate internal states sufficiently so as to attend to the requirements of a social situation and the needs of others. A child who has developed a sociomoral temperament of self-protectionism has likely encountered consistent social stress (i.e., associated with compromised wellbeing), which has resulted in behavior that prioritizes safety of the self over the wellbeing of others. Poor wellbeing, associated with repeated stress, could create a default focus on self-preservation (Shanker, 2016) that undermines social self-regulation. As a consequence, regulation in social settings might be compromised, resulting in impulsivity or externalizing behaviors toward others. In contrast, a child whose wellbeing is high will likely have developed the foundations for engagement, allowing for attention to the needs and concerns of others and successful regulation of behavior. Our hypothesis was that early positive wellbeing would be linked to a sociomoral temperament of approach and openness to social experience rather than avoidance or withdrawal. We also expected that sociomoral temperament would connect to social outcomes with implications for moral behavior, such as moral socialization and social self-regulation. Lastly, we expected the relation between wellbeing and outcomes would be mediated by sociomoral temperament.

Our first goal was to develop a measure of sociomoral temperament, which we named the measure of Child SocioMoral Orientation (CSMO), and to confirm its factor structure. Our second goal was to examine each component of our hypothesized model of the relations between wellbeing, sociomoral temperament, and children's social outcomes (see Figure 1). Given that our overarching hypothesis was that children's wellbeing predicts individual differences in moral socialization and social self-regulation mediated by sociomoral temperament, we tested the relations between (a) our measures of wellbeing (happiness, thriving, anxiety, depression) and the CSMO scores (Figure 1, path A); (b) the CSMO scores and social outcomes (Figure 1, path B), including measures of moral socialization (empathy, concern after wrong doing, internalized conduct) and social self-regulation (inhibitory control, misbehavior); and (c) the extent to which CSMO mediated between wellbeing and social outcomes.

We expected strong positive relationships between wellbeing measures (e.g., thriving) and engagement scores on CSMO, and similarly positive relationships between illbeing (e.g., anxiety), and self-protectionism scores; likewise, we expected illbeing to be negatively correlated with engagement scores, and wellbeing to be negatively correlated with self-protectionism. We also hypothesized that CSMO engagement scores would positively predict social outcomes (socialization and self-regulation), and that self-protectionism would negatively predict these same outcomes. Lastly, we hypothesized that CSMO scores would mediate the relations between wellbeing and child moral outcomes.

We collected large samples in two countries. We selected the USA and China for their historically distinctive cultures, one more individualistic and one more collectivistic (Triandis et al., 1990). We also assessed measurement invariance across the two cultures. Although USA and Chinese cultures differ in several ways, we anticipated that similar outcomes would be found for each sample, including that CSMO would have similar factor structures across cultures because of its focus on fundamental social approach-avoidance, which characterizes human interactions generally. In all our analyses, we controlled for gender and tested for gender differences since they have emerged in past research using some of the measures (e.g., Kochanska, 1994; Clark et al., 2016).

The purposes of this study were to confirm the factor structure of the CSMO measure and assess whether it would mediate the relation between wellbeing and moral outcomes in young children.

Our goal in Study 2 was to test whether these models applied equally well in a different culture. Despite the significant cultural variation between the USA and China, we expected CSMO to have a similar factor structure because of its focus on fundamental social approach-avoidance, which characterizes human interactions generally. This second sample afforded examination of measurement invariance across cultures as well as group comparisons with the USA data. We also conducted the same examination of mediation effects of sociomoral temperament in relation to wellbeing and sociomoral outcomes as in Study 1.

In this sample, a two-factor structure for CSMO again emerged, and sociomoral temperament mediated some of the relations between wellbeing and social outcomes. The mediation analyses suggest the greatest role for sociomoral temperament was between the illbeing predictors (depression and anxiety) and concern and inhibitory control, at least with respect to total indirect effects. Similar patterns emerged for total indirect and IRA-specific mediation between happiness and inhibitory control and misbehavior. In comparison to the USA sample, these findings suggest possible cultural differences with respect to the role of sociomoral temperament in connecting wellbeing and social outcomes.

Most of the CSMO differences between subscales that emerged were country rather than gender differences, with the USA having significantly higher scores even after adjustments for multiple comparisons. For the subscales associated with IRA, these findings are consistent with other research indicating that American mothers tend to emphasize their children's successes and deemphasize their failures, whereas Chinese mothers do the opposite (Ng et al., 2007). Although CSMO factors are not measuring successes and failures per se, the generally positive valence of the items might have elicited higher endorsement from American mothers than Chinese mothers. Additionally, if expectations about the appropriateness of displaying fear, anger, or timidity differ between cultures, what children show and how parents rate those behaviors might also differ (Louie et al., 2013). At the same time, the Chinese mothers scored their children lower on every CSMO factor subscale except anxiety. Chinese culture is a shame-socialized culture, emphasizing maintenance of others' approval, especially elders (filial piety), and avoidance of disappointing others (Schoenhals, 1993); consequently, parenting even of young children tends to emphasize right behavior, compliance after wrongdoing and making amends (Fung, 1999). Perhaps low scores in China occurred because Chinese citizens tend to minimize emotions in their lives (Ryder et al., 2008), and they have specific longstanding etiquette rules for behavior such as self-control and obedience to elders, which they may consequently judge more harshly (Conrad, 2019).

In these studies, we hypothesized that sociomoral temperament would mediate the relationship between wellbeing and sociomoral outcomes in two countries, the USA and China. As hypothesized, we found a two-factor solution for our measure of sociomoral temperament in both samples for Imaginative Relational Attunement (IRA) and Self-Protectionism (SP), and in both samples, mediation analyses demonstrated that these factors influenced the relationship between wellbeing and social outcomes. These findings support the theory that psychological wellbeing influences moral development through children's orientation toward the social world in early childhood, though results need to be understood in light of their cross-sectional nature.

Similarities and differences emerged in the patterns when examining models across countries. For example, IRA mediated everything in the USA but not in China. With respect to child outcomes, at least one factor of sociomoral temperament effectively mediated the relationship with the wellbeing measures in the USA, and connections emerged for all outcomes except internalized conduct for China. For internalized conduct, the Chinese scores were less varied than in the US sample, which might account for the lack of mediation, and further exploration of parents' conceptualization of internalized conduct across cultures would illuminate these relationships at this point in development.

Across both countries IRA demonstrated a higher number of specific and direct effects than SP. One interpretation of this result is that an engaged sociomoral temperament plays a greater and more varied role in mediating between wellbeing and social outcomes than does self-protectionism. However, the samples were drawn from typically-developing, middle-class populations that scored higher on thriving and happiness and lower on anxiety and depression. They exhibited more variation on the IRA than the SP scores. A wider range of scores on SP, such as that obtainable in clinical populations, might result in greater variation. In typically-developing samples like these, who have higher happiness and thriving scores, IRA might be a more typical outcome. Thus, as a positive mediator, IRA might have captured more variance than SP. This idea does not negate SP as a mediator but does suggest a need for exploration in samples that have less attenuated scores.

The findings presented here support the idea that early wellbeing influences social outcomes and that sociomoral temperament helps explain this relationship. Our results suggest that sociomoral temperament is a mechanism worth investigating in explaining the connection between psychological wellbeing and young children's moral development. The pattern of findings between the USA and China samples suggests that some relation between wellbeing, sociomoral temperament, and social outcomes might be universal, but that differences in cultural expectations, perhaps with respect to children's obedience to adult authority (Fung, 1999), might govern the exact connections that emerge. As children's wellbeing helps formulate children's sociomoral temperament, the inclination to approach or withdraw from social interaction, the ways in which they learn to function in the world appear to have significance for later social capacities. Viewing morality as a function of holistic wellbeing might have significant ramifications for understanding how psychological functioning influences children's nascent morality and consequent social functioning.

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.

The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by University of Notre Dame Institutional Review Board. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

We thank the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts at the University of Notre Dame for its financial support.

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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