How Is Virtuous Personality Trait Related to Online Deviant Behavior among Adolescent College Students in the Internet Environment? A Moderated Moderated-Mediation Analysis

Abstract

Online deviant behavior is a series of maladaptive behaviors that may have adverse effects on the physical and mental health of others and adolescents in the Internet environment. Previous studies have paid more attention to the risk factors of adolescent online deviant behavior. However, its protective factors and psychological mechanisms remain unclear. Thus, this study explored the protective effect of virtuous personality trait on adolescents’ online deviant behavior and its psychological mechanism. A total of 851 Chinese college students anonymously completed a series of questionnaires about virtuous personality trait, moral disengagement, perspective taking, and online deviant behavior. The findings showed the following: (1) Virtuous personality trait was negatively correlated with online deviant behavior. (2) Moral disengagement mediated the relationship between virtuous personality trait and online deviant behavior. (3) Perspective taking moderated the first half stage of the mediation model in which college students’ virtuous personality trait influences online deviant behavior via moral disengagement. (4) A moderated moderated-mediation analysis found that gender moderated the moderating effect of perspective taking on the relationship between virtuous personality trait and moral disengagement. This study is helpful to demonstrate the protective effect and psychological mechanism of virtuous personality trait on online deviant behavior. Some theoretical and practical significance and limitations were also analyzed and discussed.

Do good things happen to good people? Agreeable individuals are more likely to be depressed under competition ( ¿Le pasan cosas buenas a la gente buena? Las personas agradables son más propensas a deprimirse en situaciones de competencia )

“…For example, self-esteem was a stronger predictor of life satisfaction in individualistic cultures than in collectivistic cultures, and extraverts tend to be happier in extraverted cultures than in introverted cultures (Diener & Diener, 1995; Fulmer et al, 2010). As a representative collectivist culture, traditional Chinese culture values and respects kindness, and ‘good people/nice guys’ have a strong attraction in Chinese society and often have good mental health (Zhang et al, 2021). However, the results of this study showed that these good people will also encounter a greater risk of depression when facing a fiercely competitive environment.…”

“…Por ejemplo, la autoestima era un predictor más fuerte de la satisfacción vital en las culturas individualistas que en las colectivistas, y los extravertidos tienden a ser más felices en las culturas extravertidas que en las introvertidas (Diener & Diener, 1995; Fulmer et al, 2010). Como cultura colectivista representativa, la cultura tradicional china valora y respeta la amabilidad, las ‘buenas personas/los chicos buenos’ tienen un gran atractivo en la sociedad china y suelen tener una buena salud mental (Zhang et al, 2021). Sin embargo, los resultados de este estudio mostraron que estas buenas personas también encontrarán un mayor riesgo de depresión cuando se enfrenten a un entorno ferozmente competitivo.…”

The Impact of Childhood Psychological Abuse on Internet Altruistic Behavior: The Chain Mediating Role of Dark Triad and Negative Cognitive Emotional Regulation

“…For instance, leave messages on the Internet to support and comfort those who are feeling down; when you see fraudulent information, remind netizens not to be cheated and so on. Through literature review, it is found that academic circles have conducted many discussions on the in uencing factors of IAB, such as personality traits [12][13][14] , cognition and motivation [15][16][17] , emotions [18][19][20] , etc. However, few studies have explored the relationship between individual experiences (e.g., CPA) and IAB.…”

The general factor of personality and moral hypocrisy: A moderated mediation model

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that moral disengagement can mediate the relationship between some personality traits (e.g., virtuous personality trait, the Big Five personality traits, and dark personality traits, etc.) and college students' unethical behaviors (Nocera et al, 2022; Zhang & Zhao, 2022; Zhou et al, 2019). Moral disengagement is a cognitive mechanism that justifies unethical behaviors and thus avoids moral self‐sanctions that result from deviations from moral principles (Bandura et al, 1996).…”