Moral judgment and behavioral dimensions of juvenile delinquency

✍ Scribed by Peter M. Heyns; Hermanus G. Niekerk; Johan A. Roux

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1981
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 513 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0165-0653
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00139737

✦ Synopsis

The relationship of levels of moral reasoning to behavioral dimensions of juvenile delinquency was investigated, using 162 delinquent boys in a reformatory. After adding biographical data to the Quay Behavioral Classification Instruments, four second-order factors were obtained, interpreted as a social inadequacy, an obstreperousness, a social orientation and an antisocial egocentricity factor. The principled morality score of Rest's Defining Issues Test correlated negatively with a social inadequacy score while a score measuring morality of rules and duty to social order correlated with a score indicating a group inclined social orientation. Unexpectedly delinquents with antisocial egocentristic tendencies did not display lower principled morality scores. Some evidence for the validity of Quay's Inadequacy-immaturity dimension was found_ * This article is based on the doctoral dissertation of the first author completed under the supervision of the second and third authors.