Cyberbullying perpetration among Chinese adolescents: The role of interparental conflict, moral disengagement, and moral identity

Abstract

The current study examined the relationships among interparental conflict, moral disengagement, moral identity, and cyberbullying perpetration among adolescents. Participants were 649 Chinese high school students (aged 11–19 years, 48% girls). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis and SPSS macro PROCESS were conducted to test the proposed the moderated mediation model. Results showed that moral disengagement was positively correlated with adolescents' cyberbullying perpetration behavior. Moral identity was negatively related to cyberbullying perpetration behavior. Moral disengagement and moral identity mediated the effect of interparental conflict on cyberbullying perpetration. Moreover, moral identity moderated the indirect effect of interparental conflict on cyberbullying perpetration behavior through moral disengagement. These findings suggest that interparental conflict could foster cyberbullying perpetration through adolescents' moral disengagement and moral identity. In addition, a strong moral identity can buffer the negative effect of moral disengagement on cyberbullying perpetration.