The influence of moral reasoning of adolescents in their self-reported antisocial behaviour: The case of girls

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between moral development of adolescents and their antisocial behavior (self-reported) differentiating on the basis of the nature of the conduct, if it is against property, against people, against the order, or against public health. The data used comes from a survey conducted in 2012 in Aragon to 1,762 adolescents between 14 and 18 years of age. Principal component analysis is used to identify the internal structure of the data for the different dimensions of moral reasoning of adolescents (reasoning about the rightfulness of anti-social behaviors, tolerance towards violence, opinion about prevention mechanisms, and their figures of reference). The regression analysis shows that higher penalty of antisocial behavior, having adults as leading figures and being a girl reduce the probability of committing a crime. On the contrary, (higher) age, tolerance towards violence and submission, and a greater preference for social prevention mechanisms significantly increase the risk of being an offender.