title: Moral disengagement among children and youth: a meta-analytic review of links to aggressive behavior.
abstract: A growing body of research has demonstrated consistent links between Bandura's theory of moral disengagement and aggressive behavior in adults. The present meta-analysis was conducted to summarize the existing literature on the relation between moral disengagement and different types of aggressive behavior among school-age children and adolescents. Twenty-seven independent samples with a total of 17,776 participants (aged 8-18 years) were included in the meta-analysis. Results indicated a positive overall effect (r = .28, 95% CI [.23, .32]), supporting the hypothesis that moral disengagement is a significant correlate of aggressive behavior among children and youth. Analyses of a priori moderators revealed that effect sizes were larger for adolescents as compared to children, for studies that used a revised version of the original Bandura scale, and for studies with shared method variance. Effect sizes did not vary as a function of type of aggressive behavior, gender, or publication status. Results are discussed within the extant literature on moral disengagement and future directions are proposed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental and Social Psychology, University of Padua, Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: Gianluca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gini
authors.forename: Tiziana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pozzoli
authors.forename: Shelley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hymel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D058445:Bullying / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D009014:Morals; D010379:Peer Group; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: aggression; bullying; cyberbullying; meta-analysis; moral disengagement