Foreseeability and self-interest as moral judgment factors with normal and acting-out adolescent boys

Thirty-two male adolescents participated in a study of moral judgment and its relationship to social functioning. Half of the subjects were selected for frequent acting-out, aggressive behavior, and half were selected from regular eighth-grade classes and matched for intelligence. The moral stories featured good intentions with bad outcomes and varied as to whether or not the outcome was foreseeable and in the actor's self-interest. Subjects judged the actor, attributed judgments to adults, and casually explained the outcome. The difference in judgments between foreseeable and nonforeseeable actions was greater for “normal” subjects. Furthermore, although normal subjects judged foreseeable actions more harshly than acting-out subjects, the reverse was true for nonforeseeable actions. Judgments attributed to adults were harsher than subjects' own judgments, and this difference was greater for acting-out subjects. Causal attributions (personal vs. situational) and other reasoning related strongly to the foreseeability and self-interest factors but not to subject group.     

Patterns of sedentary behavior among adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: Reducing certain sedentary behaviors (e.g., watching television, using a computer) can be an effective weight loss strategy for youth. Knowledge about whether behaviors cluster together could inform interventions. STUDY DESIGN: Estimates of time spent in 6 sedentary behaviors (watching television, talking on the telephone, using a computer, listening to music, doing homework, reading) were cluster analyzed for a sample of 878 adolescents (52% girls, mean age = 12.7 years, 58% Caucasian). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The clusters were based on the sedentary behaviors listed above and compared on environmental variables (e.g., household rules), psychosocial variables (e.g., self-efficacy, enjoyment), and health behaviors (e.g., physical activity, diet). RESULTS: Four clusters emerged: low sedentary, medium sedentary, selective high sedentary, and high sedentary. Analyses revealed significant cluster differences for gender (p < .002), age (p < .002), body mass index (p < .001), physical activity (p < .01), and fiber intake (p < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest a limited number of distinct sedentary behavior patterns. Further study is needed to determine how interventions may use cluster membership to target segments of the adolescent population.