Moral judgement and aggressiveness in children and adolescents with intellectual disability
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIDOB-10-2018-0012 |
| Pages | 21-33 |
| Published date | 30 May 2019 |
| Date | 30 May 2019 |
| Author | Leïla Oubrahim,Nicolas Combalbert,Véronique Salvano-Pardieu |
| Subject Matter | Health & social care,Learning & intellectual disabilities,Offending behaviour,Sociology,Sociology of crime & law,Deviant behaviour,Education,Special education/gifted education,Emotional/behavioural disorders |
Moral judgement and aggressiveness
in children and adolescents with
intellectual disability
Leïla Oubrahim, Nicolas Combalbert and Véronique Salvano-Pardieu
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence of aggressive behaviour among children
and adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) and to demonstrate a possible link with moral judgement.
Design/methodology/approach –This study was carried out using two scales on a sample of 60 young
people with ID in specialized schools. The first scale was “Behavior Problems Inventory-Short Form”
(Rojahn et al., 2012) used to assess the frequency of aggressive behaviour and the second involved several
scenarios about social situations of aggressiveness to assess moral judgement.
Findings –The main findings indicate that children and adolescents with ID gave more importance to the
factor “consequences”than to that of “intent”. Moreover, there was a link between moral judgement and
aggressive behaviour. Indeed, aggressive people found it harder to take into account the other’s point of
view. Regarding moral judgement, they gave greater importance to the “consequences”factor than
non-aggressive people.
Originality/value –The study aimed to establish, for the first time, a link between aggressiveness and moral
judgement (blame) in ID (Anderson, 1996). This study clearly provides useful information regarding public
health for patients, professionals and families. The authors were able to measure a similar frequency of
aggressive behaviour in both children and adolescents with ID. The authors also highlighted a link between
these aggressive behaviours and moral judgement. This knowledge should enhance understanding of
manifestations of aggressiveness in this population, and improve diagnostic assessment. It should also help
define appropriate directions for educational interventions to prevent the onset of aggressive behaviour
or delinquency.
Keywords Aggressive behaviour, Moral judgement, Intellectual disability, Children, Adolescents
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Aggressiveness is a trait of human behaviour. In typical development (TD), the frequency of
physical aggressive behaviours decreases with age (10–18 years) (Cairns and Cairns, 1994;
NICHD Early Child Care Research Network, 2004). Cognitive development and the development
of language and social skills contribute to decreasing the frequency of this type of behaviour
(Côté et al., 2006). Those who continue to present a high level of aggression appear not to learn
to inhibit physically aggressive behaviours, and fail to learn alternative behavioural strategies
(Tremblay, 2003).
Benson and Brooks (2008) reported that aggression is a significant problem in individuals with
intellectual disability (ID), from childhood to adulthood and at all levels of intellectual impairment.
Children and adolescents with ID demonstrate aggressive behaviours like bullying, or verbal or
relational aggression (Farmer and Aman, 2009). Other studies have shown that people with ID
may show aggressive-destructive, stereotypic or self-injurious behaviour. Furthermore, these
behaviours appear considerably more frequently in people with ID than in people with TD
(Rojahn et al., 2012; Barnard-Brak et al., 2015). Stereotypic and self-injurious behaviour appear
Received 26 October 2018
Revised 2 February 2019
Accepted 9 April 2019
Leïla Oubrahim,
Nicolas Combalbert and
Véronique Salvano-Pardieu are
all based at the Universite
Francois-Rabelais de Tours
UFR Lettres et Langues,
Tours, France.
DOI 10.1108/JIDOB-10-2018-0012 VOL. 10 NO. 2 2019, pp. 21-33, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 2050-8824
j
JOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES AND OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR
j
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