Psicothema was founded in Asturias (northern Spain) in 1989, and is published jointly by the Psychology Faculty of the University of Oviedo and the Psychological Association of the Principality of Asturias (Colegio Oficial de Psicología del Principado de Asturias).
We currently publish four issues per year, which accounts for some 100 articles annually. We admit work from both the basic and applied research fields, and from all areas of Psychology, all manuscripts being anonymously reviewed prior to publication.
Laura Férriz Romeral, Jorge Sobral Fernández and José Antonio Gómez Fraguela
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
Background: Moral reasoning and its association with various types of behavior have been the subject of many studies in Psychology. Specifically, moral reasoning has been widely related to juvenile delinquency in the research about the subject. Objectives: this review integrates more than 70 years of scientific research into the differences in moral reasoning between adolescent offenders and non-offenders with a view to elucidating the relationship between moral reasoning and juvenile delinquency with provision for the potential moderating effect of demographic and methodological variables. Method: We conducted a meta-analytic review whose target population was young offenders between 11 and 20 years old. Results: A search for literature on the target topic retrieved a total of 72 studies with a moderated effect size (r = -.336). The most salient finding was that effect sizes were significant for all subgroups of moderating variables. Conclusions: This result suggests a powerful relationship between moral reasoning and officially recorded juvenile delinquency that cannot be exclusively ascribed to sociodemographic or methodological variables. There remain some unsolved challenges in this field, however, which are briefly commented on.
Razonamiento moral en adolescentes infractores: una revisión sistemática. Antecedentes: el estudio de la asociación entre razonamiento moral y diversos comportamientos ha ocupado numerosos estudios en Psicología. Específicamente, el razonamiento moral ha sido ampliamente relacionado con la delincuencia juvenil a lo largo de dichas investigaciones. Objetivos: este estudio pretende integrar más de 70 años de producción científica acerca de la búsqueda de sus iguales no infractores en razonamiento moral entre menores infractores y teniendo en cuenta el posible poder moderador tanto de variables demográficas como metodológicas. Método: se lleva a cabo una revisión meta-analítica cuya población objetivo fue menores infractores entre 11 y 20 años. Resultados: se obtuvo una muestra de 72 estudios, obteniendo un tamaño de efecto moderado de r= -.336. Se observa que los tamaños de efecto para los subgrupos que conforman las variables moderadoras son significativos. Conclusión: este resultado sugiere que la relación entre razonamiento moral y delincuencia juvenil es potente y no solo atribuible a características metodológicas o sociodemográficas de la muestra. Se finaliza con una reflexión sobre algunos retos pendientes en este campo.
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https://doi.org/10.7334/psicothema2017.378