Peer influence in bullying: The autonomy-enhancing effect of moral competence

Fair Play in a Context of Physical Education and Sports Behaviours

The study examined prosocial behaviour and the perception of fair play in the context of physical education and sport (PES) in adolescents participating in sports, and those not undertaking sports at all. The aim of this study was to explore and indicate potential associations between an understanding of the concept of fair play and selected behaviours (e.g., abiding by the rules, obeying decisions of the referee and sportsmanship) in youth. In total, 1257 secondary school students, aged 16.1 ± 0.87 years (627 girls and 600 boys), were recruited. For assessing the level of fair play awareness (L), the Fair Play Moral Dimensions Concept Scale (FPMDCS) was used. To measure the declared level of prosocial behaviours of students, the survey My Physical Education Class (MPEC) was used. Participants were divided into groups in relation to training experience (no sports, amateur sports, professional sports) and subgroups, with levels according to their understanding of the Fair Play concept (L₁ to L₃). The results show significant difference in all dilemmas in various groups in relation to scores in subgroup L₃ (p = 0.056; p = 0.012; p = 0.003) with regard to subgroups L₂ and L₁ in the level of understanding fair play. Overall, the percentage of respondents who view fair play only in the context of sport (L₁) is 69%. Far fewer are those (31%) who understand it more broadly as a principle that applies to everyday life situations (L₃). It seems to be crucial to promote moral development during PES activities, especially the value of respect.

Susceptibility to prosocial and antisocial influence in adolescence

Introduction

Adolescents are particularly susceptible to social influence and previous studies have shown that this susceptibility decreases with age. The current study used a cross-sectional experimental paradigm to investigate the effect of age and puberty on susceptibility to both prosocial and antisocial influence.

Methods

Participants (N = 520) aged 11–18 from London and Cambridge (United Kingdom) rated how likely they would be to engage in a prosocial (e.g. “help a classmate with their work”) or antisocial (e.g. “make fun of a classmate”) act. They were then shown the average rating (in fact fictitious) that other adolescents had given to the same question, and were then asked to rate the same behaviour again.

Results

Both prosocial and antisocial influence decreased linearly with age, with younger adolescents being more socially influenced when other adolescents’ ratings were more prosocial and less antisocial than their own initial rating. Both antisocial and prosocial influence significantly decreased across puberty for boys but not girls (independent of age).

Conclusions

These findings suggest that social influence declines with increasing maturity across adolescence. However, the exact relationship between social influence and maturity is dependent on the nature of the social influence and gender. Understanding when adolescents are most susceptible to different types of social influence, and how this might influence their social behaviour, has important implications for understanding adolescent social development.