Parental Moral Disengagement and Adolescent Substance Use: The Mediating Role of Adolescents’ Moral Disengagement in a Three-Wave Longitudinal Study

Although diverse factors have been linked to substance use in adolescence, little is known about the relation between moral disengagement and substance use. The objectives of this study were to explore the prospective impact of moral disengagement induced by parents on adolescent substance use and to analyse if this relation was mediated by adolescents´ moral disengagement. This was a prospective longitudinal study in which 533 adolescents (48.1% female, 51.9% male) were followed up annually in three consecutive school years. The mean age of participants at T1 was 12.46 (SD = 0.71). According to the mediation analysis, there was no evidence of a direct relation between parental moral disengagement and licit substance use, but parental moral disengagement predicted later adolescents´ moral disengagement which later predicted more licit substance use. Fostering moral competency in adolescents could be an effective element for preventing substance use even when moral disengagement is induced by parents.