Early and Middle Adolescents’ Reasoning About Moral and Personal Concerns in Opposite-sex Interactions

This study examined how adolescents coordinate personal and moral concerns in reasoning about opposite-sex interactions. Sixty-four early and middle adolescents (Ms = 12.74, 16.05 years) were individually interviewed about two hypothetical situations involving opposite-sex interactions (commenting on appearance, initiating a date), presented in four conditions that varied the salience of personal vs. moral concerns. Overall, participants viewed opposite-sex interactions as harmless and acceptable in personal conditions, but as moral concerns became more salient, they were viewed more negatively, as less contingent on the target’s response, and as entailing humiliation, coercion, and victimization. Age differences occurred primarily in reasoning about conditions entailing mixed-personal and moral concerns. Implications for adolescents’ understanding of harassment and victimization are