Perception of moral atmosphere in school and norm transgressive behaviour in adolescents: An intervention study

Abstract

How students perceive the moral atmosphere in their school may affect their behaviour in and around school. The perception of the moral atmosphere in school demands an assessment of the majority perspective among students, and is influenced by several individual and group-related characteristics. Can students learn to perceive the moral atmosphere in their school more accurately, and would an increase in perception accuracy reduce students’ norm transgressive behaviour in and around the school? To answer these questions an intervention programme, based on Galperin’s educational theory, was implemented class-wide and evaluated in a field study with a pre-test–post-test control group design with an added delayed post-test. Participants were 752 students from 40 Grade 8 and Grade 10 classes from 9 secondary schools. In hierarchical multiple regression analyses students’ perception of a school’s moral atmosphere, moral self-complexity, and moral judgment contributed to the prediction of norm transgressive behaviour and/or prosocial behaviour. As expected, the intervention produced a more unanimous perception of moral atmosphere (i.e., less variation within a class), particularly among boys. A more unanimous perception of moral atmosphere was negatively related to frequency of self-reported norm transgressive behaviour and positively to pro-social behaviour. The intervention effects on behaviour depended on the school. The significance of these results for the programme is discussed.