Longitudinal Relationships between Bullying and Moral Disengagement among Adolescents

A Four-Wave Cross-Lagged Study of Exposure to Violent Contexts, Cognitive Distortions, and School Bullying during Adolescence

School bullying represents a widespread expression of violence in the peer context. Guided by the social-ecological model, this study investigated the longitudinal and transactional pathways linking domestic and neighborhood/community violence exposure (through direct victimization and witnessing), self-serving cognitive distortions (CDs), and school bullying perpetration. Furthermore, consistent with the previous literature, we tested the cognitive desensitization process that could develop in response to chronically violent contexts. Two four-wave cross-lagged panel mediation models were tested in a sample of 778 high school students (28.1% males; Mage [Time 1; T1] = 14.20, SD = 0.58). The results showed differential effects of multiple contexts and forms of violence exposure, with domestic violence victimization and community violence witnessing being associated with self-serving CDs and bullying perpetration over time. Moreover, significant associations between CDs and bullying perpetration over time were found, with bidirectional effects for each of these longitudinal patterns. Finally, self-serving CDs significantly mediated the relationships between both domestic violence victimization and community violence witnessing and school bullying perpetration. These findings highlight the need to consider school bullying as a social phenomenon stemming from a complex and bidirectional interplay between individuals and the environments they inhabit, confirming a basic postulate that "violence breeds violence".

Understanding the moral cognition of aggression: Longitudinal serial effects of personal relative deprivation and hostility on within-person changes in civic moral disengagement

Moral disengagement is an important aggressive and moral cognition. The mechanisms of changes in moral disengagement remain unclear, especially at the within-person level. We attempted to clarify this by exploring the serial effects of personal relative deprivation and hostility on civic moral disengagement. We conducted a three-wave longitudinal survey with 1058 undergraduates (63.61% women; mean age = 20.97). The results of the random intercept cross-lagged panel model showed that personal relative deprivation at Wave 1 and hostility at Wave 2 formed a serial effect on the within-person changes in civic moral disengagement at Wave 3, and the longitudinal indirect effect test showed that the within-person dynamics in hostility at Wave 2 acted as a mediator. The results of multiple group analysis across genders further showed that the longitudinal indirect role of hostility at Wave 2 was only observed for men, but not for women, which indicates the moderating effect of gender. These findings facilitate an understanding of the mechanisms of aggressive cognitions at the within-person level and offer implications for the prevention and intervention of aggression from the perspective of moral cognition.

Parenting Styles and Moral Disengagement in Young Adults: The Mediating Role of Attachment Experiences

Research on parenting styles and attachment experiences has paid little attention to the dimensions of moral development. It is, therefore, interesting to explore the relationship between parenting styles, internal working models of attachment, and the development of moral skills, in terms of moral disengagement. The study involved 307 young people (aged 19-25 years), and the dimensions examined were: parental styles (measured by the PSDQ: Tagliabue et al., 2014); attachment styles (ECR: Picardi et al., 2002); moral disengagement (MDS: Caprara et al., 2006). Results showed that the authoritative parenting style is negatively correlated with the two measures of attachment styles (anxiety and avoidance) and moral disengagement. The authoritarian and permissive styles are positively correlated with the two measures of attachment styles (anxiety and avoidance) and moral disengagement. Results also revealed a significant indirect effect of the authoritative style (b = -0.433, 95% BCa, CI [-0.882, -0.090]) and authoritarian style (b = -0.661, 95% BCa, CI [.230, 1.21]) on moral disengagement through anxiety. A serial mediation of anxiety and avoidance on the relationship between permissive style and moral disengagement (b = .077, 95% BCa, CI [.0006, .206]) is significant.

Psychometric Properties of the Moral Disengagement through Technologies Questionnaire (MDTech-Q) in a Sample of Chilean University Students

In the virtual environment, hostile and aggressive comments that could negatively affect university students who often use different digital platforms are frequently observed, more than other age groups who have little or no supervision. In this sense, moral disengagement (MD) has been linked to different negative behaviors that manifest in physical interactions and which currently take place on the Internet, creating the need for instruments that specifically address MD online. The aim of this study is to adapt and validate the Moral Disengagement through Technologies Questionnaire (MDTech-Q) with Chilean university students. The sample comprised 527 university students (43.14% men, 56.86% women), with an average age of 22.09 years (SD (Standard Deviation) = 3.59) enrolled in 12 universities. First, a linguistic adaptation of the scale took place, and the surveys were applied considering ethical principles. Then, two confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were performed, which considered four correlated factors, and provided satisfactory indices, agreeing with the original theoretical proposal, and demonstrating suitable reliability by internal consistency. In relation to the analyses of invariance according to sex and social media use, the MDTech-Q is stable up to scalar invariance. This study provides evidence of the psychometric quality of the MDTech-Q for its use on Chilean university students.

Minimizing responsibility in the aggressive dynamics of bullying and its impact on other strategies of moral disengagement: a longitudinal study

Not assuming responsibility, or minimizing it, after committing an offence is one of the four moral disengagement strategies linked to the phenomenon of bullying described by the Social Cognitive Theory. However, to date, there has been no research into the role of the agent’s locus in this process and the mediating effect of bullying perpetration in the possible evolutionary sequencing of moral disengagement strategies. This study addresses both of these goals. A total of 1107 schoolchildren (54.7% girls; Mage = 14.49; SD = 0.789) were surveyed in a longitudinal study at three time points spaced six months apart. The results indicated that minimizing responsibility directly predicts both cognitive restructuring and distortion of consequences. They also confirmed that aggressive perpetration in bullying has a mediating effect on all three strategies. Nevertheless, this sequential dynamic does not include dehumanization, which was not directly linked to minimizing responsibility and was mediated by the perpetration of aggression in bullying. We discuss the extent to which minimizing responsibility is the first step in a temporal sequence of moral disengagement mechanisms that help maintain the aggressive dynamic in bullying, so that it stimulates the other mechanisms and incorporates the locus of the aggressive agent. These findings allow us to advance in our understanding of the ethical dimension (sensitivity and moral criteria) implicit in the phenomenon of unjustified aggressiveness known as bullying.

Longitudinal effect of self-control on reactive-proactive aggression: Mediating roles of hostile rumination and moral disengagement

Self-control is a well-known inhibitor of aggression, but the effect of self-control on different kinds of aggression (such as reactive-proactive aggression) and the underlying mediating mechanisms of these effects are unclear. We developed a mediation model to address these issues. A three-wave study was conducted with a sample of 1203 qualifying Chinese undergraduates to test the model. The results showed that self-control at Wave 1 negatively predicted reactive aggression at Wave 3 through mediating effects of hostile rumination and moral disengagement at Wave 2 at the same time, while self-control at Wave 1 negatively predicted proactive aggression at Wave 3 only through moral disengagement at Wave 2. Furthermore, the longitudinal relationship between hostile rumination and moral disengagement is mutual. The current findings support our hypotheses regarding the mediation model of self-control inhibiting reactive-proactive aggression and suggest that moral disengagement should be a common and basic variable to predict most kinds of aggression; further, hostile rumination only has a particular effect on reactive aggression. The present study used motivation theory to explain its mediation model, which develops aggressive theory regarding varied common influencing factors and underlying mediating mechanisms of reactive and proactive aggression.

Equipping Youth to Think and Act Responsibly: The Effectiveness of the “EQUIP for Educators” Program on Youths’ Self-Serving Cognitive Distortions and School Bullying Perpetration

School bullying is a serious public health concern in many countries worldwide. Over recent decades, several effective anti-bullying prevention programs have been developed. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an adapted version of the “Equipping Youth to Help One Another (EQUIP) for Educators” (EfE) program in reducing adolescents’ engagement in school bullying perpetration by correcting their use of self-serving cognitive distortions (CDs). Furthermore, guided by the vantage sensitivity framework, we investigated whether the intervention effects varied depending on the adolescents’ gender and environmental sensitivity. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test with a control group design involved 354 Italian middle and high school adolescents (51.7% males; Mage = 14.86, SD = 2.54). Both the control (n = 187) and experimental group (n = 167) completed self-report questionnaires, before and after the intervention. Structural equation modeling revealed a significant moderated mediation effect: highly sensitive males participating in the EfE program decreased their engagement in bullying by reducing CDs, compared to females and those with low- and medium- sensitivity. These findings support the effectiveness of the EfE program in equipping youth to think and act more responsible and shed light on “why” and “for whom” the intervention might work better to counteract school bullying during adolescence.

The dark web of machiavellianism and psychopathy: Moral disengagement in IT organizations

In the current paper, we were interested in examining a series of predictors of organizational moral disengagement, namely Machiavellianism and psychopathy, along with a series of demographic variables (i.e., gender, age, and work experience). Our sample consisted of 114 IT employees aged 21 to 54 (M = 28.51, 62% males). We used a cross-sectional approach and an original scale to measure organizational moral disengagement. The hierarchical regression analysis suggested that the most important predictor of organizational moral disengagement was Machiavellianism, followed by gender (i.e., males). A significant, negative association emerged between organizational moral disengagement and age, suggesting that the older we grow, the lower the organizational moral disengagement. Machiavellianism and psychopathy were significantly associated with all moral disengagement mechanisms, except one - diffusion of responsibility. The most powerful association we found were between Machiavellianism and moral justification and between psychopathy and euphemistic language. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Longitudinal Links of Individual and Collective Morality with Adolescents' Peer Aggression

Adolescents' aggressive behavior has been often linked to biases in morality. However, limited knowledge is available regarding the relative strength of different moral correlates, both at the individual and class-level, in predicting different types of aggressive behavior over time. To address this gap, the present study tested the prospective associations of moral identity and moral disengagement with reactive and proactive aggression in a short-term longitudinal study. The sample consisted of 1158 Italian adolescents (48.7% females; M_age = 13.6 years, SD = 1.1). Participants completed self-report measures of moral identity, moral disengagement, perceived collective moral disengagement in the fall, and reactive and proactive aggression in the fall and in the spring. Multivariate multilevel analysis indicated that, at the individual level, after controlling for the stability of aggressive behavior, T2 (Time 2) reactive aggression was higher for students who reported lower moral identity and higher moral disengagement at T1 (Time 1). For proactive aggression, a significant interaction effect indicated that the negative association between T1 moral identity and T2 aggression was apparent only at high levels of T1 moral disengagement. Moreover, proactive aggression was significantly predicted by higher perceived collective moral disengagement. At the class-level, T1 collective moral disengagement helped explain between-class variability of T2 reactive and proactive aggressive behavior. How these results expand previous research on morality and aggressive behavior and their potential implications for prevention and intervention programs is discussed.

Bullying Perpetration, Moral Disengagement and Need for Popularity: Examining Reciprocal Associations in Adolescence

Precursors and consequences of bullying have been widely explored, but much remains unclear about the association of moral and motivational factors. This study examined longitudinal associations between need for popularity, moral disengagement, and bullying perpetration. A total of 3017 participants, aged 11 to 16 years in wave 1 (49% girls; M_age = 13.15, SD = 1.09), were surveyed across four waves with six-month intervals. At the between-person level, cross-lagged modeling revealed a positive bidirectional association between moral disengagement and need for popularity; bullying perpetration was predicted by both need for popularity and moral disengagement. From the within-person level, random intercept cross-lagged analyses revealed that need for popularity predicted both moral disengagement and bullying perpetration. The results highlight the interplay between motivational and moral mechanisms that underlies bullying behavior.

Hazers' Personality Characteristics and the Perception of School Climate in Slovenia

This article presents the initiation rite for the admission of newcomers to Slovenian upper secondary education, which is called "pheasanting" and has similar characteristics to hazing. It examines the relationship between certain personality traits of hazers with their perception of the school climate and the severity of the hazing activities they engage in (subtle, harassing, and violent hazing). In a sample of 460 students in the fourth grade of upper secondary education, 25.4% of them had carried out hazing in the previous 3 years, of which 47% performed only subtle, 24% harassment, and 29% violent hazing. Violent and harassment hazers justified their actions much more often than subtle hazers by dominating and distorting of the consequences and by diffusing responsibility. They also had less empathy and perceived the school climate as enabling more aggressive attitude. However, violent hazers had the most negative attitude toward hazing, while harassment hazers found hazing most acceptable. Finally, some practical implications of the results at individual and school level are discussed.

Callous-unemotional Traits, moralische Identität und Bullying im Jugendalter

Zusammenfassung. Theoretischer Hintergrund: Die Rolle der Moral im Kontext pro- und antisozialer Verhaltensweisen wird sowohl national als auch international diskutiert. Im Zusammenhang mit antisozialen Verhaltensweisen von Jugendlichen werden zudem vermehrt Callous-unemotional Traits betrachtet. Fragestellung: Die vorliegende Studie untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen CU-Traits, der moralischen Identität und Bullying. Methode: Insgesamt bearbeiteten N = 749 Jugendliche einen Fragebogenkatalog. SPSS und AMOS wurden zur Analyse der vorliegenden Daten genutzt. Ergebnisse: Die Ergebnisse zeigen direkte Effekte von Callousness, Uncaring und der moralischen Identität auf Bullying. Die Skalen Uncaring und Callousness zeigen einen Zusammenhang mit moralischer Identität und Bullying. Diskussion und Schlussfolgerung: Die Ergebnisse deuten an, dass die moralische Identität und die damit einhergehende moralische Entwicklung wichtige Prädiktoren für das Verhalten von Jugendlichen sind.

Moral disengagement and verbal bullying in early adolescence: A three-year longitudinal study

This three-year longitudinal study examined both within- and between-person effects of moral disengagement on verbal bullying perpetration in early adolescence. Data came from the first four waves (T1-T4, Grades 4 to 7) of an ongoing longitudinal project examining social and moral correlates of bullying in Swedish schools. Participants included 2432 Swedish early adolescents (52% girls; M_age at T1 = 10.55 years). Students completed self-report measures of verbal bullying perpetration and moral disengagement. Results of a multilevel growth model showed that verbal bullying increased over time (regression coefficient for Grade was b = 0.04, SE = 0.01, p < .001). Additionally, the verbal bullying trajectories of participants with higher average levels of MD were higher (regression coefficient for MD¯ was b = 0.28, SE = 0.02, p < .001) and steeper (regression coefficient for the Grade ×MD¯ interaction was b = 0.02, SE = 0.01, p = .018), indicating that these students scored higher on verbal bullying in general and increased more in verbal bullying over time, compared to students with lower levels of average MD. Variations around one's own mean of MD over time was also significantly associated with concurrent changes in verbal bullying (regression coefficient for time-varying MD was b = 0.21, SE = 0.01, p < .001).

BULLYING E MECANISMOS DE DESENGAJAMENTO MORAL: REVISÃO SISTEMÁTICA DA LITERATURA COM METANÁLISE

RESUMO O bullying é um dos principais problemas enfrentados por crianças e adolescentes nas escolas. Este estudo teve por objetivo examinar evidências disponíveis na literatura sobre o efeito do desengajamento moral no envolvimento de estudantes em situações de bullying. Para tanto, foi realizada revisão sistemática com metanálise e consulta a oito bases de dados. As publicações elegíveis foram analisadas por meio da análise conceitual e do pacote estatístico Metafor. O estudo foi registrado na base PROSPERO. No total, 15 artigos foram incluídos na revisão. Os dados evidenciam que o desengajamento moral é um forte preditor para o comportamento de bullying (OR 0,27; IC95%: 0,18, 0,35) e estudantes propensos a se desengajarem moralmente podem praticar mais bullying quando comparados com estudantes com maior engajamento moral. Conclui-se que fatores cognitivos relacionados ao desengajamento moral devem ser incluídos na discussão do fenômeno, bem como ser considerados nas propostas de intervenção antibullying.

Individual, Familial, and Socio-Environmental Risk Factors of Gang Membership in a Community Sample of Adolescents in Southern Italy

Despite the growing social alarm generated by the recurrent news concerning violent episodes involving youth gangs, systematic research in Italy in this field, especially within a psychological framework, is still limited. Following a social-ecological approach, the present study aimed at investigating the role of self-serving cognitive distortions (CDs), parental rejection, and community violence witnessing in youth gang membership (YGM). Furthermore, we examined the mediating and/or moderating role of YGM in the association between risk factors and involvement in antisocial behaviors (ASBs). A community sample of 817 adolescents attending middle and high schools in a high-risk urban area in Southern Italy (46.9% males; 53% middle school students; M_age = 14.67; SD = 1.65) were involved in the study. One hundred and fifty-seven participants (19.2%) were found to be gang members. Employing counterfactual-based mediation analysis, we found that CDs and community violence witnessing were directly associated with YGM and ASBs. The association between CDs and ASBs was mediated by YGM. Parental rejection was directly related to ASBs but not to YGM. A significant interaction effect between parental rejection and YGM was found, revealing that high levels of parental rejection, along with being a gang member, amplified the involvement in ASBs. These findings pointed out that distorted moral cognitions and the experience of violence witnessing within the community may represent a fertile ground for gang involvement. Both individual and contextual factors should be considered in order to implement interventions aimed to prevent adolescents' risk of joining a gang.

How to Be Aggressive from Virtual to Reality? Revisiting the Violent Video Games Exposure-Aggression Association and the Mediating Mechanisms

Few studies have simultaneously examined the underlying mechanisms of the link between violent video games exposure (VVGE) and aggression (as proposed by different theories) to examine how they explain the relationship between the concepts as independent-dependent variables. This study used a multi-informant design to examine the relationship between VVGE and the functions (proactive and reactive) of aggressive behaviors by comparing three mediating mechanisms: anger, moral disengagement, and cognitive impulsivity. The sample consisted of 2,095 Chinese children and adolescences (48.9 percent girls; M_age = 11.12 years, SD = 1.70) and their mothers. After controlling for age, gender, socioeconomic status, child maltreatment, and problematic traits, structural equation modeling indicated that anger and moral disengagement play mediating roles between VVGE and proactive and reactive aggression, but cognitive impulsivity only plays a mediating role between VVGE and reactive aggression. The discussion emphasizes the importance of creating prevention programs for anger, moral disengagement, and cognitive impulsivity to break the VVGE-to-aggression cycle, and provides suggestions for future research.

Childhood Maltreatment and Bullying Perpetration among Chinese Adolescents: A Moderated Mediation Model of Moral Disengagement and Trait Anger

BACKGROUND

Childhood maltreatment plays an important role in adolescents' bullying perpetration. However, the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this association remain largely unknown.

OBJECTIVES

The current study examined the relationship between childhood maltreatment and adolescents' bullying perpetration and extended previous literature by examining the mediating effect of moral disengagement and the moderating effect of trait anger in this relationship.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Four hundred and thirty-five Chinese adolescents (228 girls, mean age = 13.55 years) participated in the current study.

METHODS

Our theoretical model was examined using a short-term longitudinal design. During the fall of 2016, adolescents completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire-Short Form. After six months, they completed the moral disengagement Scale, the Bullying Scale, and the Trait Anger Scale in the spring of 2017.

RESULTS

The results indicated that childhood maltreatment positively predicted adolescents' bullying perpetration at six months later, and moral disengagement mediated this relationship. Trait anger moderated the relationship between moral disengagement and bullying perpetration, but not the relationship between childhood maltreatment and bullying perpetration. Specifically, high trait anger adolescents who had higher levels of moral disengagement were more likely to bully their peers than low trait anger adolescents.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings indicate that childhood maltreatment plays an important role in adolescents' bullying perpetration, and this relationship is mediated by moral disengagement. Moreover, trait anger moderates the relationship between moral disengagement and bullying perpetration. Educators who examine adolescents' bullying perpetration should pay closer attention to their moral disengagement and trait anger, as well as their childhood maltreatment experiences, in order to provide appropriate interventions.

Pathways Linking Exposure to Community Violence, Self-serving Cognitive Distortions and School Bullying Perpetration: A Three-Wave Study

School bullying is a social phenomenon stemming from a complex interrelationship between the individuals and their environments. Underpinned by the social-ecological models, this study investigated the mediation of self-serving cognitive distortions (CDs) in the relationship between community violence exposure, as a victim and as a witness, and bullying perpetration. Bidirectional associations between violence exposure and bullying perpetration, and between CDs and bullying perpetration over time were also hypothesized. The study used a three-waves cross-lagged panel modeling in a sample of 829 Italian high school adolescents (46% males; Mage [Time 1; T1] = 12.71; Standard deviation [SD] = 1.68). The results showed that being exposed to community violence as a witness at T1 increased the development of CDs at Time 2 (T2), which in turn promoted the bullying perpetration at Time 3 (T3). Being exposed to community violence as a victim was not a significant predictor of CDs and bullying perpetration over time. Bidirectional associations were found between witnessing violence and bullying perpetration, and between CDs and bullying perpetration. The association between community violence exposure and individual moral cognitions over time plays a crucial role in predicting bullying perpetration. These findings highlight the need to consider both contextual and individual factors in understanding and preventing bullying perpetration.

Violent video games exposure and aggression: The role of moral disengagement, anger, hostility, and disinhibition

Based on the General Aggression Model (GAM), the current study investigated the interactive effect of personal factors (e.g., sensation-seeking) and situational factors (e.g., violent video games exposure [VVGE]) on the trait aggressive behavior, and the mediating role of individual difference trait (e.g., moral disengagement, anger, and hostility). We recruited 547 undergraduates (48.45% male) from five Chinese universities. The results showed that VVGE was positively associated with moral disengagement, disinhibition, and the four aggressive traits (physical aggression, verbal aggression, anger, and hostility), which were positively associated with each other. Moral disengagement was positively associated with both the disinhibition and the four aggressive traits. Disinhibition was positively associated with the four aggressive traits as well. When controlled for gender, moral disengagement, anger, and hostility wholly mediated the relationship between VVGE and aggression, but the moderation effect of disinhibition was not significant. These findings support the framework of GAM and indicate that moral disengagement, anger, and hostility may be the factors that increase the risk of a higher level of aggression following repeated exposure to violent video games.

Violent Behaviors, Weapon Carrying, and Firearm Homicide Trends in African American Adolescents, 2001-2015

African American youths have the highest risk for firearm and other weapon related homicides. This study utilized the national Youth Risk Behavior Surveys from 2001 to 2015 to assess trends in violence related behaviors and weapon carrying of African American adolescents. Our analyses found statistically significant reductions in physical fighting and weapon carrying among African American male adolescents from 2007 to 2015. Planning suicide increased in both male and female African American adolescents since 2007. In addition, the number of firearm homicides increased in African American males. African American females and males had groups of items highly predictive of weapon carrying behaviors: alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use and violent risk behaviors. Both female and male students who made mostly A's or B's in school were significantly less likely to carry weapons in and out of school. Our findings indicate that firearm homicides have increased in African American adolescents, but weapon carrying in school going adolescents has significantly declined. School engagement and satisfactory school performance seems to have a significant protective effect on firearm homicides and violent behavior risks in African American adolescents.

Offensive acts and helping behavior on the internet: An analysis of the relationships between moral disengagement, empathy and use of social media in a sample of Italian students

BACKGROUND

The phenomenon of cyberbullying is on the rise among adolescents and in schools.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the relationship between personality characteristics such as empathy, the tendency to implement cognitive mechanisms aimed at moral disengagement, and the use of social media.

PARTICIPANTS

Italian students from first to fifth year in high school classes (n = 264).

METHODS

A questionnaire was used to gather information on the sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, their use of social media, their level of empathy (Basic Empathy Scale, BES), and mechanisms of moral disengagement (Moral Disengagement Scale MDS). Two questions were included to determine whether each participant had ever been a victim of or witness to cyberbullying.

RESULTS

Results suggest that offensive behaviors are related to mechanisms of moral disengagement and to interaction using forms of communication that allow anonymity. In addition, offensive behavior appears to be related to forms of Internet addiction, while prosocial behavior is linked with cognitive empathy.

CONCLUSION

In order to promote the establishment of prosocial behavior, it would seem necessary for the various players involved - schools, parents, social network developers - to make an effort to implement educational environments and virtual social networks based on a hypothesis of "design for reflection", educating young people about the need to take the time to understand their feelings and relationships expressed via social media.

Individual and Classroom Social-Cognitive Processes in Bullying: A Short-Term Longitudinal Multilevel Study

The aim of this study was to examine whether individual and classroom collective social-cognitive processes (moral disengagement and self-efficacy) were associated with bullying perpetration among schoolchildren. An additional aim was to examine whether changes in these processes from grade 4 (Time 1) to grade 5 (Time 2) were associated with a change in bullying perpetration. Self-reported survey data were collected from 1,250 Swedish students from 98 classrooms. Results of multilevel analysis indicated that individual and classroom collective moral disengagement (CMD) were positively associated with bullying, and defender self-efficacy (DSE) was negatively associated with bullying. The effect of changes in individual moral disengagement on changes in bullying was positive, and the effects of changes in DSE and classroom collective efficacy on changes in bullying were negative. Thus, the findings demonstrate the changeability of moral disengagement, DSE and collective efficacy over time, and how these changes are linked to changes in bullying perpetration.

A meta-analysis of the relationship between moral disengagement and bullying roles in youth

Over the last several years, researchers have become increasingly interested in the influence of moral factors on bullying behaviors. This is the first meta-analytic review to exclusively examine the relationship between moral disengagement (MD) and the key bullying roles of bully, victim, defender, and bystander. Forty-seven independent samples examining a total of 43,809 children/adolescents (aged 7-19) were included in this meta-analysis. Results indicated a positive relationship between MD and bullying (r = 0.31; 95% CI [0.27, 0.34]), MD and victimization (r = 0.08; 95% CI [0.05, 0.12]), and a negative relationship between MD and defending (r = -0.11; 95% CI [-0.17, -0.04]). No significant relationship was found for MD and bystanding behavior. Moderators of bullying type (traditional vs. cyberbullying), reporting type (self vs. peer report), age, and gender were included in the analyses. The results are discussed in the context of relevant literature with particular emphasis on the importance of distinguishing between guilty and unconcerned bystanders, and the significant overlap between bullying and victimization in the cyber context.

Deaf Children's Moral Behavior, Moral Reasoning and Emotion Attribution

The present study examined deaf children's moral development with experimental tasks. Experiment 1 investigated lying and sharing behavior in 37 six- to 11-year-old deaf children, 39 age-matched hearing children and 33 twelve- to 16-year-old deaf adolescents who were matched with the hearing children on vocabulary ability. The results showed that the deaf children did not lie more but shared less than the hearing children. The deaf adolescents' sharing behavior was similar to the hearing children. Experiment 2 further investigated moral reasoning and emotion attribution among 20 deaf children and 30 age-matched hearing children. The results showed that the deaf children did not lag behind the hearing children in moral reasoning but did so with regard to attributing emotions to themselves in moral contexts. Therefore, the present study indicates that moral cognition might be sufficient for deaf children to avoid rule-breaking behavior but insufficient for them to show prosocial behavior.

Attachment, Social Value Orientation, Sensation Seeking, and Bullying in Early Adolescence

In this study, bullying is examined in light of the "prosocial security hypothesis"- i.e., the hypothesis that insecure attachment, with temperamental dispositions such as sensation seeking, may foster individualistic, competitive value orientations and problem behaviors. A group of 375 Italian students (53% female; Mean age = 12.58, SD = 1.08) completed anonymous questionnaires regarding attachment security, social values, sensation seeking, and bullying behaviors. Path analysis showed that attachment to mother was negatively associated with bullying of others, both directly and through the mediating role of conservative socially oriented values, while attachment to father was directly associated with victimization. Sensation seeking predicted bullying of others and victimization both directly and through the mediating role of conservative socially oriented values. Adolescents' gender affected how attachment moderated the relationship between sensation seeking and problem behavior.

Feeling unrestricted by rules: Ostracism promotes aggressive responses

The current research consisted of three studies (overall N = 338; 59 men; mean age = 19.98; SD = 1.75), which aimed to examine whether ostracism promotes aggression through enhanced feelings of rule negligence by adopting a multi-method approach. Participants were undergraduate students in a public university in Hong Kong and they only participated in one of the three studies. The results showed that ostracized participants reported higher levels of rule negligence and aggression than non-ostracized participants (Studies 1 and 2). Moreover, enhanced feelings of rule negligence significantly mediated the relation between ostracism and aggression (Studies 1 and 2). In addition, priming ostracized people with the importance of following social rules weakened the effect of ostracism on aggression (Study 3). In sum, these findings highlight the critical influence of rule negligence in understanding when and why ostracism promotes aggression and how to diminish such an effect. Implications were discussed.