Home⇛International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research⇛vol. 7 no. 9 (2026)

Pathways To Values Formation: Mapping The Interrelationships Among Character Traits, Moral Awareness And Ethical Influences

Merilyn S. Cruz

Discipline: Philosophy

 

Abstract:

This study aimed to identify the factors shaping learners’ character traits and moral awareness as the basis for a Values Formation Pro-gram. As education increasingly emphasizes holistic development, schools are expected to develop learners who are morally responsi-ble, socially conscious, and ethically grounded. Perez (2024) reported increasing incidents of dishonesty, disrespect, irresponsibility, and apathy among Filipino students, underscoring the need to strengthen values education. The study employed a quantitative, descriptive-cor-relational research design. Teachers served as the respondents by as-sessing the character traits, moral awareness, and ethical influences of elementary learners using a validated researcher-made question-naire administered through Google Forms. Descriptive statistics de-termined the levels of the variables, while Pearson’s correlation de-termined the relationships among them. The findings revealed signif-icant positive relationships among learners’ character traits, moral awareness, and ethical influences. Learners with stronger character traits demonstrated higher levels of moral awareness, while both var-iables were significantly associated with teacher modeling, values ed-ucation, family ethical orientation, peer influence, and community support. These results indicate that learners’ moral development is influenced by the interaction of personal characteristics and environ-mental factors. Based on the findings, a Values Formation Program was developed to strengthen character development and moral awareness through values education activities, character-building workshops, ethical dialogue, family-school partnerships, and reflec-tive practices. The study highlighted the shared responsibility of schools, families, and communities in fostering ethical and socially re-sponsible learners and provides evidence-based guidance for educa-tors and policymakers in designing sustainable values education ini-tiatives.



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