This study examined the gender differences in moral orientation among 162 children, ages 11 through 13. Subjects were enrolled in the Minnesota Mother-Child Interaction Project, a longitudinal study of high-risk children and their families. Semi-structured interviews were used to determine each child's ability to understand and use moral orientations in the resolution of moral conflict. The interviews involved presenting a fable dilemma and asking how the subject would resolve it. Results of these interviews were then correlated with teacher rankings of emotional health, peer competence, internalizing and externalizing behaviors, school motivation, and verbal ability. Girls scored significantly higher on ability to use and understand care and used significantly more care considerations than boys. For boys, justice reasoning was correlated with emotional health and verbal ability, whereas for girls care correlated with verbal ability. (A copy of the fable dilemma is appended.) (MDM)