Adolescents' cheating and delinquent behavior from a justice-psychological perspective: the role of teacher justice

• Published in: European journal of psychology of education 2014-12, Vol.29 (4), p.635-651
• Main Authors: Donat, Matthias, Dalbert, Claudia, Kamble, Shanmukh Vasant
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Adolescents; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Antisocial Behavior; Behavior Patterns; Beliefs; Biological and medical sciences; Bullying; Cheating; Child development; College Students; Correlation; Criminal justice; Criminals; Cross Cultural Studies; Cultural Context; Delinquency; Delinquent behavior; Deviance; Deviant behavior; Drug Use; Education; Educational Psychology; Foreign Countries; Gender Differences; Germany; High School Students; India; Indians; Individual Differences; Injustice; Justice; Learning Problems; Medical sciences; Neurosis; Norms; Pedagogic Psychology; Procedural justice; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Questionnaires; Regression (Statistics); Role; Social behavior disorders. Criminal behavior. Delinquency; Social Capital; Social Development; Social psychology; Social Responsibility; Society; Student Attitudes; Student Behavior; Students; Teacher Behavior; Teacher Effectiveness; Teacher Student Relationship; Teachers; Teenagers
• ISSN: 0256-2928; 1878-5174
• DOI: 10.1007/s10212-014-0218-5

The more people believe in a just world (BJW) in which they get what they deserve, the more they are motivated to preserve a just world by ones' just behavior. Consequently, we expected school students with a strong BJW to show less deviant behavior as cheating or delinquency. The mediating role of teacher justice was also examined. Questionnaire data were obtained from a total of N=382 German and Indian high school students. Regression analyses revealed that the stronger students' BJW was, the less cheating and delinquent behavior they reported. Moreover, the more the students believed in a just world, the more they evaluated their teachers' behavior toward them personally to be just, and the experience of teacher justice fully mediated the relation between BJW and cheating and delinquency, respectively. This pattern of results was in line with our hypotheses and consistent across different cultural contexts. It persisted when neuroticism and sex were controlled. The adaptive functions of BJW and implications for future school research are discussed.