Citation

Coleman J, Jenkins SR, Sanders C. SIS J. Proj. Psychol. Ment. Health 2021; 28(1): 14-26.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Somatic Inkblot Society)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between social cognitive maturity and aggression in 12-year olds as moderated by moral disengagement. These constructs have often been measured by self-report scales, raising questions of shared method variance, but data from the Berkeley Guidance Study at the Institute of Human Development of the University of California, Berkeley provided three different measurement methods. Interpersonal decentering is a narrative measure of social cognitive maturity akin to perspective-taking and role-taking. Items from the adolescent California Q Sort measured moral disengagement. Aggression ratings were derived from parents‟ reports of the children's behavioral problems. Interpersonal decentering, moral disengagement, and aggression problems were not significantly correlated. However, moderation analysis showed that children who decentered less maturely, along with those who decentered maturely but were more morally disengaged, had the most severe aggression problems. Those who both decentered more maturely and were less morally disengaged had fewer aggression problems than others.

Language: en