This study was conducted to learn more about the moral development of Hawaiian children and adolescents and to assess if grade level (grade 5, 7, 9, or 11) or gender were related to the children's reported level of self-esteem. Eighty Hawaiian children and adolescents from low-to middle-income families were interviewed individually, asked to solve a moral dilemma, and administered the Culture-Free Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI). The data did not support Gilligan's theory of moral development when used to explore this group of Hawaiian students, suggesting that Hawaiian children and youth are more similar than dissimilar in terms of their moral reasoning perspectives. Subjects did not manifest a global dichotomy in the way males and females conceptualized solutions to the ethical dilemma presented to them. Consistent with other research, there was a decrease in self-esteem scores among the seventh graders. In contrast to other research showing that females generally experienced a greater reduction in self-esteem than males and that the diminishment in their sense of self-esteem persisted throughout intermediate and secondary school years, the lower self-esteem scores reported by seventh-grade Hawaiian students in this study were not found to be gender-related (Contains 38 references.) (NB)