Emerging Adults Moral Evaluations of Relational Aggression

The present study explored the relationship between moral reasoning in terms of social domain theory, moral disengagement and relational aggression among emerging adults.Women (N = 246) and men (N = 51) were recruited from undergraduate students. Men (Mage = 21.98, SD = 1.81) were aged 19–25 years, and women (Mage = 21.39, SD = 1.49) were aged 19–26 years. Participants completed the survey online. Participants completed demographic information form, author-generated measures of moral reasoning scenarios and related questions, the Moral Disengagement and Relational Aggression in Friendships scales respectively. Higher levels of conventional reasoning were related to moral disengagement and relational aggression. However, two of the moral reasoning scenarios, the scenarios involving social exclusion and gossip were not significantly correlated with moral disengagement and relational aggression. The conventional reasoning scores derived from the other scenarios about sharing secrets, vandalism, and theft were significantly correlated with moral disengagement and relational aggression. Moreover, moral disengagement mediated the relationship between conventional reasoning and relational aggression. The findings of the present study suggest that emerging adults’ moral reasoning was related to relational aggression, but moral disengagement had a more significant effect on relational aggression in comparison to reasoning. Results of the present study were discussed in light of relevant literature