title: Parental attachment and Chinese adolescents' delinquency: The mediating role of moral disengagement.
abstract: There is substantial literature documenting the negative association between secure parental attachment and lower adolescent delinquency, but little is known about the mediating mechanisms (i.e., how does parental attachment relate to delinquency?) underlying this relation. The present study examined whether secure parental attachment would be indirectly related to lower adolescent delinquency through lower adolescent moral disengagement. A total of 1766 adolescents (44% male; mean age = 14.25 years, SD = 1.54) living in an urban area of southern China completed anonymous questionnaires regarding parental attachment, moral disengagement and delinquency. After controlling for gender, age, socioeconomic status, and school variable, it was found that secure parental attachment was negatively associated with adolescent delinquency and this negative association was fully mediated by the extent of adolescent moral disengagement. These findings contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms underlying the development of adolescent delinquency and have important implications for intervention.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology & Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhenzhou
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology & Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China. Electronic address: zhangwei@scnu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Education Science, Jiaying University, Meizhou, China.
authors.forename: Xuefen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lai
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology & Center for Studies of Psychological Application, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Wenqiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: School of Education Science, Jiaying University, Meizhou, China.
authors.forename: Yanhui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D009769:Object Attachment; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D011581:Psychological Tests; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Adolescents; Delinquency; Moral disengagement; Parental attachment