Empathy online and moral disengagement through technology as longitudinal predictors of cyberbullying victimization and perpetration

Abstract

Cyberbullying is a form of peer-aggression performed using electronic devices, by one or more individuals, with the intention to harm the cybervictims, who have difficulties in defending themselves. Diverse interpersonal variables such as empathy and mechanisms such as moral disengagement are involved in face-to-face and online interpersonal interactions. Many studies related empathy and moral disengagement to cyberbullying, but none have yet studied them together with online empathy and moral disengagement through technology. This study aimed to analyze the relationships among cyberbullying, online empathy, and moral disengagement through technology and to explore whether the dynamics established among those variables were stable over time. Participants were 1,033 students (age range 11–17 years old; M = 13.66; SD = 1.64; 48.32% girls) enrolled in public and private schools in the south of Spain. A second wave of data collection included 534 participants (52.17%; age range 12–18 years old; M = 14.10; SD = 1.33; 49.82% were girls). This study used a prospective longitudinal design. The results showed that high moral disengagement through technology was related to cyberbullying, especially in the cyberbully/victim role. The role of online empathy did not seem to have such a clear relation with cyberbullying. The need for more research in this area is highlighted.