If it Bothers Someone it’s a Mistake! How Chinese College Students Conceptualize Transgressions

Abstract

Given that college-attending emerging adults have greater autonomy and thus may be engaging in behaviors they later find problematic, there is a need to investigate how they make sense of transgressions. The present study investigated through six focus groups ( N = 40) how Chinese college students ( M age = 19.6, SD = 1.41, 60% women) made sense of social and moral transgressions (i.e., mistakes) and the strategies they use to self-correct. Mistakes were conceptualized to include violating standards (moral, social, personal) as well as negatively influencing others (causing harm, but also “being a bother” as part of communal living). Participants reported using strategies (mindfulness, seeking assistance) which required making additional effort in everyday life to self-correct. These findings have implications for considering the important role of community and social support in assisting the promotion of college students’ moral agency, so that they may learn from their mistakes.