A meta-analysis of 50 studies was conducted to investigate whether juvenile delinquents use lower levels of moral judgment than their nondelinquent age-mates and, if so, what factors may influence or moderate the developmental delay. The results show a lower stage of moral judgment for juvenile delinquents (d=.76). Effect sizes were large for comparisons involving male offenders, late adolescents, delinquents with low intelligence, and incarcerated delinquents. The largest effect sizes were found for period of incarceration and comparisons involving juvenile delinquents with psychopathic disorder. Production instead of recognition measures, dilemma-free assessment methods, and non-blind scoring procedures yielded relatively large effect sizes, whereas effect sizes were medium for comparisons involving delinquents with average intelligence, non-incarcerated delinquents, female offenders, as well as early and middle adolescents. Psychopathic disorder and institutionalization were identified as unique moderators of the link between moral judgment and juvenile delinquency. It is concluded that developmentally delayed moral judgment is strongly associated with juvenile delinquency, even after controlling for socioeconomic status, gender, age and intelligence.

No abstract

Relations between parents' discipline, children's empathic responses, and children's prosocial behavior were examined in order to evaluate Martin Hoffman's claim that children's empathy and empathy-based guilt mediate the socialization of children's prosocial behavior. 78 sixth and seventh graders (138-172 months in age), their mothers, and teachers completed multiple measures of Hoffman's constructs. Results were largely consistent with theory. Parents' use of inductive as opposed to power-assertive discipline was related to children's prosocial behavior. Children of inductive parents were more empathic; and more empathic children were more prosocial. Moreover, children's empathy was found to mediate the relation between parents' discipline and children's prosocial behavior. Few relations were obtained for children's guilt indices, but post hoc analyses yielded theoretically consistent results. Contrary to expectations, parents' use of statements of disappointment was the component of the inductive discipline score which was most strongly related to children's prosocial behavior.

Males' greater propensity for antisocial (i.e., externalizing) behavior has been well documented. Because males and females generally have evidenced negligible differences in moral judgment stage, we investigated whether the gender discrepancy in antisocial behavior might be attributable to gender differences in other moral cognitive variables, specifically, moral self-relevance and self-serving cognitive distortion. The sample included 88 male and 105 female college students aged 16 to 19 years. In multiple regression analyses, moral judgment and moral self-relevance correlated negatively, and self-serving cognitive distortion correlated positively with antisocial behavior. Path analysis revealed that mature moral judgment and higher moral self-relevance were associated with lower levels of self-serving cognitive distortion, which partially mediated the relationship between those variables and antisocial behavior. Relationships among the moral cognitive variables and antisocial behavior did not vary by gender. Although the genders did not differ in moral judgment stage, females evidenced greater moral self-relevance, less self-serving cognitive distortion, and less antisocial behavior. The implications of these findings for moral developmental theory and the treatment of antisocial behavior are discussed.A gender difference in antisocial behavior has been documented utilizing a variety of methods. Analyses of crime statistics from several countries have consistently revealed higher rates of arrest and conviction for

The authors investigated the prevalence of self-serving and self-debasing cognitive distortions and their specific relations to externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors in 96 incarcerated male and female delinquents and a comparison sample of 66 high school students. The incarcerated participants evidenced higher levels of cognitive distortion (self-serving and self-debasing) and problem behavior (externalizing and internalizing) than did comparison participants. Both self-serving and self-debasing cognitive distortions were associated with unique variance in overall problem behaviors. Most notably, self-serving cognitive distortions specifically related to externalizing behaviors, whereas self-debasing cognitive distortions specifically related to internalizing behaviors. The theoretical and treatment implications of the findings are discussed.

No abstract

The present study describes the development and preliminary validation of the “How I Think” questionnaire (HIT), a new measure of self‐serving cognitive distortion. The HIT is based upon Gibbs and Potter's [Gibbs, 1993; Gibbs et al., 1995] four‐category typology of cognitive distortion: Self‐Centered, Blaming Others, Minimizing/Mislabeling, and Assuming the Worst. The preliminary HIT exhibited high test‐retest and internal consistency reliability, and generally good construct validity. Correlations between the HIT and self‐reported antisocial or externalizing behavior remained significant after controlling for internalizing disorders [Achenbach, 1991]. The four typological categories performed comparably well. The HIT was partially successful in discriminating criterion groups. The findings are discussed in terms of theory, research, and application. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

The present study provided an evaluation of a preliminary version of “Equipping Youth to Help One Another” [EQUIP; Gibbs and Potter, 1987; Gibbs et al., in press], a multi‐component group treatment program for juvenile delinquents and other youths with antisocial conduct disorders. EQUIP assimilates the social skills training, anger management, and moral education components of Aggression Replacement Training [ART; Goldstein and Glick, 1987] into a modified Positive Peer Culture [PPC; Vorrath and Brendtro, 1985] group format. The subjects were 57 male juvenile offenders aged 15‐18 who were incarcerated at a medium‐security correctional facility. The subjects were randomly assigned either to the EQUIP experimental unit or to one of two control groups. EQUIP subjects relative to control subjects evidenced significant improvements in institutional conduct and recidivism rates, reflecting, to some extent, gains in social skills. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.