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

Abstract

BackgroundChildhood maltreatment plays an important role in adolescents’ bullying perpetration. However, the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this association remain largely unknown. ObjectivesThe 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 settingFour hundred and thirty-five Chinese adolescents (228 girls, mean age = 13.55 years) participated in the current study. MethodsOur 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. ResultsThe 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. ConclusionsThese 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.