title: The Role of Moral Disengagement in Underage Drinking and Heavy Episodic Drinking.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The current study had two aims. First, to develop a moral disengagement scale contextualized to underage drinking. Second, to investigate Bandura's (1986) self-regulatory model within the context of underage drinking.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two different samples of students participated in the study. The first sample included 619 (362 females) adolescents (Mage = 15.3 years, SD = 1.09 years) and the second sample 636 (386 females) adolescents (Mage = 15.3 years, SD = 1.03 years). Students in the first sample completed the Underage Drinking Disengagement Scale (UDDS), and measures of engagement in underage drinking and heavy episodic drinking. Students in the second sample completed these measures as well as scales of general moral disengagement, personal standards, and anticipatory guilt associated with underage drinking.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For the UDDS, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses verified a single factor structure. The UDDS was more strongly associated with engagement in underage drinking and heavy episodic drinking than a general measure of moral disengagement. A moderated mediation analysis revealed that adolescents who negatively evaluated underage drinking reported more anticipatory guilt, and more anticipatory guilt was associated with less engagement in underage drinking and less heavy episodic drinking. This relationship was weaker at high compared to low levels of underage drinking disengagement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Understanding how adolescents self-regulate their drinking, and ways that such self-regulation may be deactivated or disengaged, may help identify those adolescents at increased risk of drinking underage and of engaging in heavy episodic drinking.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Macquarie University , Sydney , Australia.
authors.forename: Catherine Angela
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Macquarie University , Sydney , Australia.
authors.forename: Kay
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bussey
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D063425:Binge Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009014:Morals; D012309:Risk-Taking; D000068356:Self-Control; D000066608:Underage Drinking / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: adolescent; alcohol; guilt; moral disengagement; underage drinking