Perceived Effect of Moral Deficiency on Antisocial and Prosocial Behaviors Among Emerging Adults

Abstract

The objectives of the study were to investigate the perceived effect of moral deficiency on antisocial and prosocial behaviors of emerging adults. Along with the demographic sheet (comprising of 3 items: age, gender, and education), three scales: moral deficiency scale (consisting of 15 items), anti-social scale (consisting of 20 items), and prosocial behavior scale (consisting of 16 items) were adopted to develop the research instrument (questionnaire) to collect the required data. Reliability of the items was assessed by Cronbach’s Alpha. The reliability of the moral deficiency scale, anti-social scale, and prosocial scale were respectively, 0.9, 0.91, and 0.9. Targeted population for this research was consisted of 240 emerging adults enrolled in different educational institutes. Data were collected through applying multistage sampling technique. Descriptive analysis and tests of correlation, regression and t test was applied. Results highlighted that moral deficiency had negative weak impact on prosocial behavior. However, correlation coefficient between moral deficiency and anti-social behavior depicts showed strong positive relationship in emerging adults. There was not any noteworthy difference in moral deficiency between male and female. On the other hand, female adults possessed more prosocial behavior than male adults, while, male had more anti-social behaviors than female.