Effect of proscriptive/prescriptive atti̇tudes, emotions of guilt/shame and attachment, on moraldisengagement in adolescents

In this research, the effects of prescriptive/proscriptive attitudes, parental attachment, and emotions of guilt/shame on moral disengagement in early adolescents aged between 12 and 14 were investigated. In addition, adolescents were asked about the attitudes of their parents' proscriptive/prescriptive attitudes. The sample of the research consisted of 202 students aged between 12 and 14 who receive education in two public secondary schools. In the research, The Attachment to Parents and Peers Inventory was used to identify parental attachment of adolescents. The participants were given vignettes representing either proscriptive or prescriptive approcahes. The Moral Disengagement Scale was used to assess moral disengagement and in order to assess the emotions of guilt and shame a 7 point Likert-type scale was used. The attitudes of adolescents' parents, which were asked as part of the manipulation stories, were scored as being proscriptive or prescriptive by using content analysis. Two studies were carried out in this research. In the first study, attachment to parents was presented to participants before the Moral Disengagement Scale, but after the Moral Disengagement Scale in the second study. Hence, the regulatory effect of attachment, in other words, reminding adolescents emotional relationships with their parents were analyzed. In the first study, while a regulatory effect of parental attachment to moral disengagement was obtained, no effect of the proscriptive/prescriptive attitudes was observed. In the second study, however, an effect of proscriptive/prescriptive attitudes to moral disengagement was found. In addition, a negative relationship between attachment and moral disengagement was found to be significant. Moreover, negative relationship between the emotions of guilt and shame and moral disengagement was gained. The results of the research were discussed based on the relevant literature. Keywords: Attachment, Guilt/Shame, Moral Disengagement, Parental Attitudes, Proscriptive/Prescriptive Attitudes.