Moral Reasoning, Delinquency and Teen Drinking

Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg contributed greatly to our current understanding of the phases of moral development in childhood and adolescence. Children must achieve concrete and formal operational thinking in order to continue to make advancements in moral development throughout their lives. Delinquency, however, is the oddity amongst this moral development. Why does delinquency occur and what are the consequences of this seemingly lack of moral development?

Summary

What causes the development of moral reasoning, and why would delinquency still occur if all go through these moral stages? It is the decline of egocentrism that contributes the most to developing this moral reasoning (Boyd & Bee, 2009). Achieving perspective is a development that allows children to understand conditions outside of themselves. As a child’s cognition continues to develop, they gain the ability to see things from other people’s perspective (e.g. their parents, their playmates, etc.). Role-taking is a term that psychologists use to describe this ability (Boyd & Bee, 2009). Research, including that of Kohlberg’s (as cited in Boyd & Bee, 2009), has provided evidences of a strong link between this role-taking and moral development. If a child or adolescent is capable of seeing things from a non-egocentric point of view, the more likely they are to develop a stronger moral reasoning ability and to use it when making judgment calls.

Pure cognitive development alone isn’t enough for moral development to be properly honed and harnessed. The development of moral reasoning also requires strong social support, specifically a social environment capable of providing meaningful dialectic about day-to-day moral issues (Boyd & Bee, 2009). A child must be privy to actual moral dilemmas, and be provided with an understanding of the reasoning process and why certain decisions were made. In fact, research has concluded that this is a correct assessment. Studies have shown that a parent’s ability to notice, understand and properly respond to a child’s underdeveloped moral reasoning is extremely important to the refinement of the child’s growing moral development (Boyd & Bee, 2009). A parent capable of reflecting on his or her own moral views in a way that a child can understand will have a great impact on that child’s future moral reasoning skills.

Lack of solid moral reasoning amongst adolescents can lead to serious forms of antisocial behavior and delinquency. Adolescent delinquency shows a clear lack of understanding or care for the law. Studies have shown that delinquent behavior is highly correlated with a deficiency in role-taking skills (Boyd & Bee, 2009). An adolescent who is unable to see things from another’s perspective, remains egocentric and lacks the necessary care and reasoning to make a truly moral decision.

Delinquency comes in two forms. Adolescent onset delinquency tends to be milder and mostly the result of teenage rebellion. Childhood onset delinquency, however, is much more problematic and features problems that existed earlier in childhood and will more than likely persist throughout adulthood.

In this paper, we will discuss the factors contributing to delinquency and will use alcohol misuse amongst teens as an example.

Discussion

Delinquency is a major problem in terms of lifespan development. Lifespan development takes notice of development through stages, and when a person is “stuck” in a certain stage of development it can have a detrimental impact on the individual in question. Psychoanalytical perspectives on developmental psychology often speak of individuals being stuck in certain stages of development and experiencing issues later in life. With theories on moral development, being stuck in certain stages hinders progress and growth and can cause a great deal of problems in the latter parts of life.

The most detrimental occurrence in moral development is for a person to be stuck in an egocentric perspective. As mentioned earlier, delinquency is directly correlated with a deficit in role-taking skills. A delinquent adolescent is often incapable of seeing things from another person’s perspective – this includes the perspective of the victim of whatever crime the delinquent may have committed. This stunt in moral growth leaves the delinquent incapable of advancing further in moral reasoning, which will leave them incapable of functioning properly in society. This hinders any further lifespan development.

The adolescent years are the years of growing independence and identity formation. These are the years when parents have the least control of a child that is still trying to find his or her way in the world. Improper moral development can be devastating not only to the future of the developing adolescent, but also that adolescent’s entire family structure.

As we move forward in this paper, we’ll take a look at adolescent alcohol use as a form of delinquency, and what effects it has on the adolescent.

Comparison

Teenage alcohol abuse is a form of delinquency associated with many factors. In the article by Nauert (2008), we are able to review research purporting that many factors beyond the traditional friends and family influence teen alcohol abuse, and that many of these factors are interrelated. Given the four social environments that an adolescent primarily lives (i.e. family, peers, neighborhood, schools), research has shown that characteristics present in all four environments played a role in whether or not an adolescent abused alcohol (Nauert, 2008). This means that beyond social interaction with family members and close friends, even people who are neighborhood acquaintances and schoolmates can have a decidedly important impact on the development of alcohol abuse and subsequent delinquencies.

Many times we look at alcohol abuse as something that occurs solely from peer group association or its significant presence in the family environment. Research presented in the article by Nauert (2008) showed that adolescents were more likely to abuse alcohol the more they were exposed to it by others in all of their various social groups. Alcohol abuse need not only be associated with the family environment. Furthermore, this study showed that these environmental factors battle with one another when it comes to influence. An increase or decrease in potential alcohol abuse varies based on conflicting exposure in social environments (Nauert, 2008). For example, an adolescent exposed to alcohol by peers or schoolmates is less likely to abuse alcohol if they have a strong family connection and come from good parenting.

Ultimately Nauert (2008) leads us to the conclusion that adolescents are embedded in a social world of many factors and groups, all of who affect the social conditioning related to alcohol abuse. Teen delinquency as a result of alcohol abuse is correlated to their social development throughout family interactions and play (i.e. leisure social interactions with friends, schoolmates, etc.).

A greater connection between delinquency and alcohol abuse can be found in the article by Collins, Hagerty, MacKay and Murray concerning drinking behavior in adolescents. Alcohol abuse per se isn’t directly associated with delinquency or even necessarily moral development for that matter; however, there is a clear indication that heavy and problematic drinking is correlated with delinquent behavior, which in turn is a result of poor moral development.

As stated, a correlation can be found between delinquency and alcohol abuse. This correlation can also include a skewed perception of morality towards events in the outside world (Collins, Hagerty, MacKay & Murray, 1963). The article by Collins, et al. (1963) shows the power of the parental figure in determining alcohol abuse, despite the many other factors that can contribute to it. Alcohol abusers are more likely to be from alcohol abusing parents (Collins, et al., 1963). Furthermore, although affected by sex, age, religion and socioeconomics (in addition to other factors), alcohol abuse is primarily associated with parental use (Collins, et al., 1963). This view seems to corroborate the study mentioned by Nauert (2008), which indicated that despite other social environment influences, conflicting environmental influences can still push things in either a positive or negative direction (i.e. consider the example of a strong family environment counteracting a negative peer group). In the case of problem drinking in delinquents, despite any positive environmental factors, parental alcohol abuse trumps out in the end.
How does this relate to delinquency though? In one study mentioned by Collins, et al. (1963), only 28% of delinquents noted that they abstained from alcohol use; over two-thirds, on the other hand, drank alcohol. Furthermore, in that same study, 22.6% of delinquents identified as heavy or problem drinkers (Collins, et al., 1963). Almost a quarter of all delinquents studied had severe alcohol abuse problems.

Why do juvenile delinquents seem to have such an alcohol issue? A direct correlation can be made between problem drinking among delinquents and emotional neglect and/or economic deprivation (Collins, et al., 1963). Furthermore, Collins, et al. (1963) were able to conclude that delinquent problem drinkers had a family environment consisting of parental problem drinking, abuse and hostility, and that these delinquents primarily used alcohol to cope with severe emotional problems. From our understanding of moral development, we know that moral reasoning is directly influenced by parental moral reasoning and the parents’ ability to bring that understanding to their children; otherwise, moral growth gets stunted, egocentrism remains and delinquency occurs.

The Nauert article and the work by Collins, et al. complements each other greatly when looking at teen drinking, delinquency and moral development. From the above overviews you can clearly see the connection between the two when uncovering the path from moral development to problematic adolescent behavior. Where they contrast, is with their focus. The Collins, et al. article draws primary attention to parental influence, while the Nauert article tries to leave you with a need to examine the entirety of the social environments of which adolescents are a part. Not surprisingly, the timetable of these two articles comes into play. The article by Collins, et al. was published in 1963, while the Nauert article, having been published in 2008 acknowledges the overarching focus on parenting in previous research, but stresses the importance of expanding that research moving forward to include all social environments.

Application

Adolescent delinquency – including more specific things like adolescent drinking – is a problem in society, but it’s one that has multiple factors when dealing with influence and corrective behavior. The first thing that needs to be done in order to apply this information effectively would be for a clinician dealing with delinquency to first determine the extent of the social problems. Is this delinquency from childhood onset or adolescent onset? Adolescent onset is more likely to be milder and easily dealt with. Think of it as teenage rebellion or a little trial-and-error gone too far on an adolescent’s part. These adolescents are less likely to carry this behavior forward into their adult life.

With childhood onset delinquency, however, it is most important to apply this understanding effectively. Most likely a delinquent whose behavior is the result of childhood onset will continue to carry that behavior beyond adolescence and into adulthood. Why? This delinquent has more than likely had behavioral problems from the beginning that are a direct result of their social environments.

The article by Nauert (2008) might show that multiple factors are involved in teenage drinking and delinquency; however, its primary example of conflict resolution between social factors indicates that the parental environment has a stronger impact on an adolescent’s decisions. Parenting is the key.

It’s one thing to educate parents on how delinquency is directly affected by emotional stress in the family environment; it’s another thing for them to actually take that advice to heart and apply it appropriately. This is why the example of teenage alcohol abuse as a form of delinquency was used in this paper. This real world example of something that all parents become concerned with (at one point or another in their lives) shows a clear path of influence not only from other environmental factors, but especially from parenting. Knowledge that young children’s moral development is directly associated with a parent’s moral development and ability to relay that understanding to children should be impactful enough when given in the context of teenage drinking. Teenage drinking and teenagers’ views on drinking have been shown to be directly influenced by the example set forth by the parents, and further influenced by the parenting style in which the child is reared.

Since teenage drinking is something that will hit close to home for many parents, applying the knowledge of the aforementioned studies to real world scenarios is best done through examples that have a clear subjective meaning to parents and children alike. Understanding of the path to juvenile delinquency will enable parents to see potentially stunted moral development earlier, and possibly lay down a corrective framework in which to make improvements.

References

Boyd, D. & Bee, H. (2009). Lifespan development (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.

Collins, L.J., Hagerty, T.J., MacKay, J.R., & Murray, A.E. (1963). Juvenile delinquency and drinking behavior. Journal of Health & Human Behavior. 4(4), 276-282.

Nauert, R. (2008). Multiple Factors Influence Teen Alcohol Misue. PsychCentral. Retrieved from http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/11/17/multiple-factors-influence-teen-alcohol-misuse/3352.html