Moral Reasoning Among Senior High School Students: A Comparative Study of Private and Public Schools in Padang

Adolescence is a critical period for moral development, yet how school type relates to Indonesian secondary students' moral reasoning remains underexplored. This study aimed to describe and statistically compare the level of moral reasoning between students at a private senior high school (SMAS 1 Adabiah Padang) and a public senior high school (SMAN 8 Padang). A quantitative descriptive-comparative design was used, drawing a sample of 326 students (163 per school) from a population of 1,751 students through Proportional Random Sampling. Data were collected using a moral reasoning tendency scale on a five-point Likert-type format covering four aspects (interpreting, estimating, evaluating, and implementing) and analyzed descriptively and inferentially using an independent-samples t-test with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22. Results showed that both groups exhibited an overall high level of moral reasoning, though private-school students recorded a significantly higher mean score (109.45, 78.18%) than public-school students (106.34, 75.96%). Across both schools, students scored highest on interpreting and lowest on implementing moral judgments into action, indicating a consistent internal pattern regardless of school type. These findings suggest that, although moral reasoning is generally well developed regardless of school type, private schooling is associated with a modest but significant advantage, underscoring the value of school-type-sensitive guidance and counseling interventions to strengthen students' capacity to act on moral judgment.