Three-year cross-lagged relationships among adolescents' antisocial behavior, personal values, and judgment of wrongness

The current study examines reciprocal relations among adolescents' values, antisocial behavior (ASB), and judgment of the wrongness of ASB over 3 years. Four hundred seven (M-age=14.36 years; SD=.72; males=56.8%) ninth grade students in Italy completed the Portrait Values Questionnaire, a self-reported ASB scale, and a questionnaire aimed to evaluate how wrong they judged it to be to violate a set of moral and social rules. Responses were obtained again after 1 and 2 years. We analyzed separate cross-lagged models for each of the higher-order value dimensions according to Schwartz's model (conservation, openness to change, self-enhancement, and self-transcendence), using structural equation models. Self-transcendence and conservation values fostered more negative judgments and less ASB over time whereas self-enhancement and openness to change values had no effects. The mediating effect of judgment on the relationship between values and ASB was significant. Moreover, ASB mediated the effects of conservation on subsequent judgments. The results highlight the role of self-transcendence and conservation values as protective factors against ASBs in adolescence.