ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B

›› 2010, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (10): 988-997.

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Adolescents’ Internet Morality and Deviant Behavior Online

MA Xiao-Hui;LEI Li   

  1. Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
  • Received:2009-12-01 Revised:1900-01-01 Published:2010-10-30 Online:2010-10-30
  • Contact: LEI Li

Abstract: Nowadays, the Internet has become an indispensable part of people’s lives. Internet morality and ethics are becoming more and more an area of concern. Adolescents have become the biggest Internet user groups in China. When adolescents use the Internet, they engage in various kinds of deviant behaviors which have been of concern by to many researchers. But how adolescents’ morality influence their deviant behavior constitutes a hitherto unstudied issue. The relationship between deviant online behaviors by adolescents and their moral performance deserves much more attention.
The present study investigates adolescents’ morality on the Internet, their Internet deviance, and the relation between Internet moral cognition, moral emotion, moral intention, and deviant behavior online. 496 adolescents from three provincial middle schools were asked to complete an Adolescent Internet Morality Questionnaire, and a Scale of Adolescent Internet Deviance, which assessed their Internet moral performance and deviant behavior online.
The results indicated that (1) adolescents’ morality towards Internet was positive, and the correlation between moral cognition, emotion and intention was positive; adolescents considered there should be some moral standards as principles of behaviors for Internet users, they disliked immoral actions in Internet Society, and they had positive intention online; (2) adolescents’ deviant behavior on the Internet was not serious. However, the frequency of inflammatory and pornographic behaviors in boys online was significantly higher than that in girls. As the adolescents grew older, there was a reduction in inflammatory behaviors, including hostility, aggression, conflict and irritability; (3) Internet moral intention and cognition could significantly and negatively predict adolescents’ deviance on the Internet. However, Internet emotion could not predict their deviance online.
The results show that the adolescents Internet morality can predict moral behavior online: if adolescents maintain a more positive morality, they will engage in less deviant behavior online. This study indicates that in order to reduce adolescents’ deviant behavior on the Internet, we should pay more attention to their moral education and to characteristics of age and gender.

Key words: adolescents, Internet moral cognition, Internet moral emotion, Internet moral intention, deviant behavior online