Psychological Development and Education ›› 2013, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (4): 361-367.

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Adolescents’ Moral Disengagement and Aggressive Behavior：Moderating Effect of Moral Judgment and Its Gender Difference

YANG Ji-ping1,2, WANG Xing-chao2   

  1. 1. School of Educational Science, Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030006;
    2. Business College of Shanxi University, Taiyuan 030031
  • Online:2013-07-15 Published:2013-07-15

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Abstract: The current study aimed to explore the impact of moral disengagement and moral judgment on adolescents' aggressive behavior, and whether or how these two factors interact in influencing adolescent's aggressive behavior. Moral Disengagement Scale, Moral Reasoning about Aggression Scale and Aggression Questionnaire were finished by 756 adolescents (332 boys and 424 girls) from junior and senior high school in Taiyuan City, Shanxi Province. SPSS16.0 and lisrel8.70 were adopted to perform a series of statistical analyses, including reliability, correlation analysis as well as Structural Equation Model Analysis. Results showed: (1) Moral disengagement had a positive effect on the aggressive behavior (r=0.52, p<0.001). Moral judgment could not significantly predict adolescents' aggressive behavior (r=-0.03, p>0.05). However, moral judgment could significantly moderate the relationship between moral disengagement and aggressive behavior. Moreover, further analysis demonstrated that the moldering effect of moral judgment was only significant in the female sample, but not for males.

Key words: moral disengagement, moral judgment, adolescent aggressive behavior

CLC Number: 

  • B844.2
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