Moral disengagement among children and youth: A meta-analytic review of links to aggressive behavior

A growing body of research has demonstrated consistent links between Bandura's theory of moral disengagement and aggressive behavior in adults. The present meta‐analysis was conducted to summarize the existing literature on the relation between moral disengagement and different types of aggressive behavior among school‐age children and adolescents. Twenty‐seven independent samples with a total of 17,776 participants (aged 8–18 years) were included in the meta‐analysis. Results indicated a positive overall effect ( r = .28, 95% CI [.23, .32]), supporting the hypothesis that moral disengagement is a significant correlate of aggressive behavior among children and youth. Analyses of a priori moderators revealed that effect sizes were larger for adolescents as compared to children, for studies that used a revised version of the original Bandura scale, and for studies with shared method variance. Effect sizes did not vary as a function of type of aggressive behavior, gender, or publication status. Results are discussed within the extant literature on moral disengagement and future directions are proposed. Aggr. Behav. 40:56–68, 2014. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.