Moral Disengagement and Risk Prototypes in the Context of Adolescent Cyberbullying: Findings From Two Countries

Abstract

Cyberbullying is associated with a wide range of mental health difficulties and behavioral problems in adolescents and research is needed to better understand psychological correlates of this behavior. The present study used a novel model that incorporated Social Cognitive Theory and the prototype/willingness model to identify the correlates of behavioral willingness to engage in cyberbullying in two countries. Adolescent students were randomly selected from secondary schools in Italy ( n = 1710) and Greece ( n = 355), and completed anonymous measures of moral disengagement, descriptive norms, risk prototype evaluations and behavioral willingness to engage in cyberbullying. Hierarchical linear regression analyses showed that willingness to engage in cyberbullying was associated with moral disengagement, prototype evaluations and descriptive social norms in Italy, and with gender, moral disengagement and descriptive social norms in Greece. Regression-based multiple mediation modeling further showed that the association between moral disengagement and cyberbullying willingness was mediated by prototype evaluations in Italy and by descriptive norms in Greece. The implications of our findings are discussed in the context of self-regulating cyberbullying perpetration in adolescents and informing school-based policies and interventions to prevent cyberbullying behavior.

A Meta-Analytic Review of Moral Disengagement and Cyberbullying

“…When the victim is separated from the bully, it can prevent being bullied and reduce the harm caused by the bullying behavior to the victim ( Bussey et al, 2015a ). However, cyberbullying, which is not restricted by time and space, can happen anytime and anywhere ( Lazuras et al, 2019 ; Hoareau et al, 2020 ). The pictures, videos, and text messages of cyberbullying others posted on the Internet are permanent.…”

“…Additionally, although there were some sporadic studies on the effect of moral disengagement on cyberbullying, its effect sizes were inconsistent across different studies. For example, Lazuras et al (2019) measured the correlation coefficient between moral disengagement and cyberbullying in Greek and Italian participants, which was −0.150 and 0.35, respectively. Wang et al (2016) calculated the correlation coefficient between moral disengagement and cyberbullying, 0.52 and 0.28 for male and female participants, respectively.…”

The Internet and Adolescent Safety: Peer Influence and Gender Difference as Potential Risk-Factors of Cyberbullying among Nigerian Secondary School Adolescents

“…Drawing on the literature that suggests a correlation between individuals' internet use level and the likelihood of being involved in risky cyber behaviour (e.g., Balakrishnan, 2015;Lazuras et al, 2019;Okorie, Ekeanyanwu, 2014;), Nigerian male adolescents are more likely to fall prey to online predators, target others or both. Past studies (e.g., Vandebosch, Cleemput, 2009;Wright, 2017) have all reported similar findings.…”

La asociación entre acoso y ciberacoso escolar y el efecto predictor de la desconexión moral: una revisión bibliométrica basada en la teoría de grafos

“…El uso de los mecanismos de desconexión moral se ha relacionado con la aparición y mantenimiento de comportamientos de acoso y ciberacoso escolar entre adolescentes (bussey et al, 2015a;Gini, 2006;Gini et al, 2014Gini et al, , 2015Pozzoli et al, 2012a), la tendencia de los niños a decir mentiras (Doyle & bussey, 2017), la conducta antisocial y delincuencial en adolescentes (Gómez & narváez, 2019;Petruccelli et al, 2017). En la literatura, se destaca el efecto directo e indirecto de la desconexión moral sobre los comportamientos de acoso y ciberacoso en niños y adolescentes, así como la importancia de este constructo psicológico para la investigación, prevención e intervención psicosocial y educativa con los intimidadores (Camodeca et al, 2018;hymel & bonanno 2014;Lazuras et al, 2019;Wang, ryoo, et al, 2016;Wang, Lei, et al, 2016;zych & Llorent, 2018).…”

“…Así, el uso de la desconexión moral ha demostrado tener un rol privilegiado en la predicción de este fenómeno. Estudios empíricos han documentado consistentemente que la desconexión moral es un predictor positivo de la victimización e intimidación por ciberacoso (Almeida et al, 2012;bussey et al, 2015a;Cuadrado & Fernández, 2019;Lazuras et al, 2019;Wang, Lei, et al, 2016). El metaanálisis realizado por Chen et al (2016), el cual examinó un conjunto de 16 predictores del ciberacoso, de acuerdo con 81 estudios empíricos que representaron una muestra total de 99,741 participantes, arrojó que el uso riesgoso de las TICs, la desconexión moral, la depresión, las normas sociales y el acoso tradicional, presentaron los efectos más significativos que predicen el ciberacoso.…”