Comparison of the Ethical Status of Public and Non-Profit Primary School Students

Background: The aim of this study was to compare the ethical status of public and non-profit elementary school students. Method: The method of the present study was descriptive-correlational and in terms of purpose, it is an applied study. The statistical population of the whole elementary students of the second period (fourth to sixth grades) in Tehran in the academic year 2018-2019. 531 people were selected as the sample and the sampling method was stratified sampling. The research instrument was Moral Development Questionnaire. Data were analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics by SPSS 24 software. Results: Data analysis showed that there is a significant difference between the moral status of non-profit and public schools (p <0.05). In other words, the average of moral status in non-profit schools is slightly higher. There was a significant difference between the moral status of boys' and girls' schools (p <0.05). There was a significant difference between non-profit and public girls' schools (p <0.05), but there was no significant difference between non-profit and public schools for boys (p <0.05). Conclusion: Based on the research findings, it can be said that non-profit schools have a better moral status than public schools.