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Developmental Precursors of Moral Disengagement and the Role of Moral Disengagement in the Development of Antisocial Behavior

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Abstract

The purpose of the study was to advance our understanding of the developmental precursors of Moral Disengagement (MD) and the role of MD in the development of antisocial behavior from early risk among an ethnically diverse sample of 187 low-income boys followed prospectively from ages 1.5 to 17. Results indicated associations between early rejecting parenting, neighborhood impoverishment, and child empathy and later MD. The link between some of these early constructs and later antisocial behavior was mediated by MD. Finally, in an exploratory path model both MD and biases in social information processing were found to mediate separate paths from early risk factors to later antisocial behavior. Results were partially consistent with the notion that adolescent MD was predicted by a combination of early family, neighborhood, and child risk factors, and that MD may be a mechanism underlying some boys’ risk of antisocial behavior.

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Notes

  1. It should be noted that the pattern of results was similar when not controlling for early externalizing behavior, although in some cases the relationships between variables was stronger when controlling for this early behavior.

  2. Given the longitudinal nature of this project, this question was addressed by computing a similar regression to predict MD using the same or similar predictor variables all assessed at age 12: empathy, inter-parental aggression, parental knowledge (see Trentacosta et al. 2009), and neighborhood impoverishment. In this regression, empathy continued to be the strongest predictor of MD, albeit the relationship between MD and neighborhood impoverishment was stronger using age 12 versus age 6–10 data.

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Acknowledgments

The research reported in this article was supported by grants to the second author from the National Institute of Mental Health (MH 50907 & MH 01666). The first author was supported by the Behavior Brain Research Training Program (GM081760). The authors would like to thank Susan B. Campbell and Edward P. Mulvey for comments on previous drafts of this manuscript, the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful suggestions, and the staff and study families of the Pitt Mother and Child Project for making this research possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology & Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, 210 South Bouquet St., 4427 Sennott Square, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA

    Luke W. Hyde

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 210 South Bouquet St., 4101 Sennott Square, Pittsburgh, PA, 15260, USA

    Daniel S. Shaw

  3. Child Development and Family Studies, Department of Technology, Learning, & Culture, West Virginia University, 506B Allen Hall, P.O. Box 6122, Morgantown, WV, 26506, USA

    Kristin L. Moilanen

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Correspondence to Luke W. Hyde.

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Hyde, L.W., Shaw, D.S. & Moilanen, K.L. Developmental Precursors of Moral Disengagement and the Role of Moral Disengagement in the Development of Antisocial Behavior. J Abnorm Child Psychol 38, 197–209 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-009-9358-5

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