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Moral Disengagement as a Self-Regulatory Cognitive Process of Transgressions: Psychometric Evidence of the Bandura Scale in Chilean Adolescents

Author

Listed:
  • Andrés Concha-Salgado

    (Department of Psychology, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4811322, Chile)

  • Angélica Ramírez

    (Department of Psychology, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4811322, Chile
    School of Psychology, Universidad de Las Américas, Santiago 7500975, Chile)

  • Beatriz Pérez

    (Department of Psychology, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4811322, Chile
    Department of Psychology, Universidad de Oviedo, 33003 Oviedo, Spain)

  • Ricardo Pérez-Luco

    (Department of Psychology, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 4811322, Chile)

  • Eduardo García-Cueto

    (Department of Psychology, Universidad de Oviedo, 33003 Oviedo, Spain)

Abstract

Moral disengagement is a process of cognitive restructuring that allows individuals to disassociate from their internal moral standards and behave unethically without feeling distressed. It has been described as a key predictor of maladaptive behaviors (e.g., delinquency, aggression, and cyberbullying) and as a mediator between individual variables and unethical outcomes (e.g., empathy and aggression). We aimed to provide evidence of validity based on the internal structure, reliability, and correlations with other constructs of the most used instrument to measure disengagement from moral self-sanctions: Bandura’s Mechanisms of Moral Disengagement Scale (MMDS). A non-probabilistic national sample of 528 Chilean adolescents from 14 to 18 years participated in the study. The results showed that the 10-item version of the MMDS had a unidimensional structure and good internal consistency. As expected, the MMDS-10 showed positive and medium correlations with abusive, violent antisocial, and delinquent behaviors and negative and medium associations with prosocial behavior and empathy. Additionally, moral disengagement fully mediated the relationship between empathy and violent antisocial behavior, supporting the hypothesis on moral disengagement as a self-regulatory cognitive process. The results confirm previous research, and the findings are discussed in terms of their implications for reducing the use of moral disengagement strategies in adolescence.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrés Concha-Salgado & Angélica Ramírez & Beatriz Pérez & Ricardo Pérez-Luco & Eduardo García-Cueto, 2022. "Moral Disengagement as a Self-Regulatory Cognitive Process of Transgressions: Psychometric Evidence of the Bandura Scale in Chilean Adolescents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-25, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12249-:d:926764
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