Moral Development in University Education: Integrity Awareness, Social Responsibility, and Moral Behavioral Intention among Chinese University Students

Abstract

This study examines how integrity awareness, social responsibility, and moral behavioral intention are related in the moral development of Chinese university students. Although universities commonly emphasize honesty, civic duty, and ethical conduct, students may not always translate moral understanding into readiness to act when they face academic pressure, peer influence, interpersonal concerns, or uncertainty about institutional support. Using a mixed-methods explanatory design, the study drew on survey data from 500 undergraduates in five universities in Eastern China and semi-structured interviews with 18 students. The quantitative findings indicate that integrity awareness positively predicts moral behavioral intention both directly and indirectly through social responsibility. The qualitative evidence further shows that peer norms, academic competition, interpersonal relations, institutional responsiveness, and social media-related academic practices influence whether students feel able to act on moral judgments. The study contributes to higher education management by showing that moral development depends not only on students’ moral cognition but also on institutional conditions that activate responsibility and support ethical action. The findings suggest that universities should combine integrity governance, responsibility-based curriculum design, faculty modeling, experiential learning, transparent procedures, and digital ethics guidance to reduce the gap between moral knowledge and ethical intention.