MORAL DISENGAGEMENT--MEASUREMENT AND MODIFICATION

University Of Texas Hlth Sci Ctr Houston, Houston TX

Investigators

Abstract

Moral disengagement is the process through which people can inflict suffering on others with a clear conscience. Numerous studies have validated this concept and recent research has shown that moral disengagement can be measured and that these measures can predict youth violence and delinquency. Pilot studies have shown that peer modeling and education can reduce moral disengagement and intolerance and that those reductions may prevent intergroup aggression and increase opposition to military violence. Based upon these preliminary studies, the investigators will develop and then qualitatively and quantitatively pretest a comprehensive set of instruments to measure the moral disengagement processes that influence seven individual and collective forms of violence among diverse groups of urban youth (high school students ages 14-15 in Houston, Texas). School- and media community-based instruction and education materials will also be developed to provide peer modeling and education promoting moral engagement (ie, resistance to moral disengagement). Then two, successive randomized nine-month school- community-level experiments will be conducted with two treatment and two comparison schools and approximately 3,000 research participants. This experiment will determine whether the instruction and education decreased moral disengagement and whether those reductions resulted in reduced rates of reported violent and delinquent behavior and behavioral intentions and in lower levels of reported victimization by violence in various forms.