Three‐year cross‐lagged relationships among adolescents’ antisocial behavior, personal values, and judgment of wrongness

Abstract

The current study examines reciprocal relations among adolescents' values, antisocial behavior (ASB), and judgment of the wrongness of ASB over 3 years. Four hundred seven (M age 5 14.36 years; SD 5 .72; males 5 56.8%) ninth grade students in Italy completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire, a self-reported ASB scale, and a questionnaire aimed to evaluate how wrong they judged it to be to violate a set of moral and social rules. Responses were obtained again after 1 and 2 years. We analyzed separate cross-lagged models for each of the higher-order value dimensions according to Schwartz's model (conservation, openness to change, self-enhancement, and self-transcendence), using structural equation models. Self-transcendence and conservation values fostered more negative judgments and less ASB over time whereas selfenhancement and openness to change values had no effects. The mediating effect of judgment on the relationship between values and ASB was significant. Moreover, ASB mediated the effects of conservation on subsequent judgments. The results highlight the role of self-transcendence and conservation values as protective factors against ASBs in adolescence. K E Y W O R D S adolescence, antisocial behavior, longitudinal studies, values

Pathways Linking Exposure to Community Violence, Self-serving Cognitive Distortions and School Bullying Perpetration: A Three-Wave Study

“…Indeed, if on the one hand the tendency to make self-serving CDs is associated with bullying perpetration over time, on the other the more a person is involved in bullying perpetration, the more he or she uses CDs to reduce cognitive dissonance [11] and, thus, justify his or her immoral actions. Consistent to these findings are the results by Aquilar et al [56] who found a reciprocal influence over time among values, moral judgment, considered similarly to CDs, and antisocial behaviors.…”

“…The longitudinal and reciprocal associations between moral cognition and behavior were investigated by Aquilar et al [56], who found a reciprocal influence over time among values, moral judgment, considered similarly to CDs as a moral motivator [57] of externalizing behaviors (i.e., 'aggression', [58]; 'bullying', [59]) and antisocial behaviors, supporting that cognitions affect behavior, and behavior feeds back into cognitions, to reduce cognitive dissonance [11] when individuals became aware of discordance between their behavior and their beliefs.…”

What Can We Learn About Aggression From What Adolescents Consider Important in Life? The Contribution of Values Theory to Aggression Research

“…In a study of Israeli adolescents, a decrease in aggression was associated with an increase in self‐transcendence values over time (Benish‐Weisman, ). Similarly, in a study of Italian teenagers, aggression was related negatively to self‐transcendence and also to conservation values over time (Aquilar et al, ). Arguably, when acting in a nonaggressive and peaceful way, adolescents observe their own behavior and attribute it to their values (Bem, ).…”

“…Although some Western studies suggest an increase in self‐focused values during adolescence, values are generally stable during this period (Aquilar, Bacchini, & Affuso, ; Daniel & Benish‐Weisman, ). This makes them a useful tool to study behavior (e.g., aggression) across time.…”

“…Therefore, changes in behavior might be a key to changes in values. In interventions, to instigate changes in values, the aggressive behavior could be changed first using specific reinforcement or influencing attitudes such as moral judgment (Aquilar et al, ).…”